The  Letters   of  an 

Apostate   Mormon 

to  his  Son 

By  HANS  P.  FREECE 


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OCT  ?f>  191 


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HANS  P.    FREECE 


The  Letters    of   an 

Apostate    Mormon 

to  his  Son 


By  HANS  P.  FREECE 


Copyright,  1908,  by  Hans  P.  Freece 


</*' 


^^. 


OCT  :?o  191 


^OlC-mrr.  <^r«^m' 


^^ 


Illustrated    by    VERONA  P.  TURINI 


A  PERSONAL  WORD, 

This  is  the  third  edition  of  this  Uttle  book.  When  we 
put  the  first  few  hundred  dollars  into  tlie  first  edition  we 
were  fearful  lest  our  effort,  time  and  money  might  be  lost. 
We  dedicated  it  to  the  cause  of  spreading  the  truth  about 
the  Mormon  Peril.  In  one  year  the  first  edition  was  ex- 
hausted; we  were  reimbursed  our  expenditures  and  the 
surplus  we  put  into  the  Mormon  work.  Again  we  put  our 
capital  into  a  second  edition.  Once  more  we  have  been  re- 
paid our  investment  and  the  surplus  once  more  has  been 
given  over  to  the  Mormon  work.  Thus  by  charging  50 
cents  for  the  book  we  have  been  enabled  to  receive  a  small 
steady  income  on  the  investment,  which  income  we  have 
devoted  to  the  printing  of  many  thousands  of  pages  of  anti- 
Mormon  literature  which  has  been  distributed  free  of  cost 
both  in  England  and  in  Am^erica. 

If  at  any  time  you  wish  information  on  the  Mormon 
question  or  if  you  desire  literature  to  combat  the  Mormon 
evil  drop  us  a  line  and  we  will  do  our  best  to  fill  your  need. 

Any  mail  addressed  to  us  in  care  of  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, New  York  City,  will  always  be  forwarded. 

Blanche  K.   Stewart-Freece. 
Hans  P.  Freece. 
New  York  City. 


—  4  — 


INDEX 

PAfiE 

A  Tribute  to  Dr.  S.  E.  Wishard,  "The  Old  Man  Eloquent  of 

the   West"    •  • 7 

The  x\merican  Tourist  in  Mormondom   •• 9 

Polygamy     •  • 13 

The  First  Glimpse  of  Utah  15 

Jorgen      . .  •  • 19 

Why  I  Became  a  Mormon   21 

1  he  ^Mountain   jNIeadow  Massacre    25 

The  Walk  from  Council  Bluffs  to  Salt  Lake  City  30 

Early  Experience  in   Utah    33 

]\Iore    Experience    in    Utah    •  •  39 

A  [Mormon  Family   42 

A  Sad  Tale   •  • 47 

"The  Order  of  Enoch" 50 

Why  T  Left  the  ]\Iormon  Church   •  • 54 

What  I  Saw  in  the  Endowment  Llouse   58 

Dark    Days    in    Utah    63 

A  Paradox • 66 

"What  Fools  We  Mortals  Be"   71 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Hans    P.    Freece    Frontispiece 

Erigham  Young's  First  View  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake ••....  17 

The  Mountain  Meadow  Massacre  27 

A  Polygamist's  Home  in  Southern  Utah   43 


A  TRIBUTE. 

Dr.  Wishard. 
Almost  a  score  of  years  ago  it  was  announced  to  the 
children  of  a  small  mission  school  in  Utah  that  "there  will 
be  services  to-night  in  the  (Mormon)  meeting-house.  Tell 
your  parents  to  come,  because  the  new  minister  wishes  to 
meet  them."  The  announcement  that  a  Presbyterian  cler- 
gyman would  occupy  a  Mormon  pulpit  may  seem  strange 
to  some,  but  those  familiar  with  the  Utah  situation  will 
smile  because  they  know  that  when  the  Mormons  very 
graciously  and  gallantly  offered  the  use  of  their  building, 
the  mission  teacher  and  a  few  scholars,  accompanied  in 
some  cases  by  a  parent,  would  comprise  the  audience. 
And  it  was  so  in  this  instance,  there  being  present  abou^ 
twelve,  all  told.    The  small  boys,  perhaps,  had  ideas  as 
to  what  a  Presbyterian  was  like,  but  sorrowful  was  the 
disappointment    when    an   ordinary    looking    individual 
wearing  a  square  coat  and  straggling  side-whiskers,  came 
into  the  room,  distributing  smiles  and  handshakes  to  each 
and  all.    But  whatever  of  disappointment  was  pictured  on 
their  faces  gave  way  to  awe  and  rapture  when  the  deep, 
sweet  tones  of  ''Is  mjrname  written  there?"  came  rolling 
out.     It  was  the  first  time  that  they  had  heard  a  man's 
Aoice  raised  in  song,  and  such  a  voice!     One  small  boy 
S!ttmg  behind  the  writer  whispered  to  his  mother,  "He 
looks  like  a  pig,  don't  he,  ma?"  to  which  he  received  an 
affimative  reply.    That  settled  it.    He  must  be  punished, 
and  he  was  actually  receiving  his  just  dues  behind  the 
"meeting-house,"  after  the  meeting,  when  two  big  broth* 
eis  came  to  his  rescue,  and  the  whipping  that  a  certain 
boy  received  has  not  yet  been  forgotten.     Such  was  our 
first  meeting  with  Dr.  S.  E.  Wishard.  the  "old  man  elo- 
quent of  the  West."    To  meet  him  was  to  love  him;  to 
hear  him  was  to  trust  him;  to   follow  him  was  to  find 
Christ.    One  day  word  came  to  the  mission  schools,  one 
by  one,  that  Dr.  Wishard  lay  seriously  ill  at  his  home  in 

—  7  — 


INDEX 

PAGE 

A  Tribute  to  Dr.  S.  E.  Wishard,  "The  Old  Man  Eloquent  of 

the   West" 7 

The  American  Tourist  in  Mormondom 9 

Polygamy 13 

The  First  Glimpse  of  Utah   15 

Jorgen 19 

Why  I  Became  a  ]\Iormon    21 

1  he  Mountain  Meadow  Massacre    25 

The  Walk  from  Council  Bluffs  to  Salt  Lake  City  30 

Early   Experience   in   Utah    33 

i\Iore    Experience    in    Utah 39 

A  ]^Iormon   Family   42 

A  Sad  Tale   •  • 47 

"The  Order  of  Enoch" 50 

Why  I  Left  the  :Mormon  Church   • 54 

What  T  Saw  in  the  Endowment  House   58 

Dark    Days    in    Utah    63 

A  Paradox 65 

"What  Fools  We  Mortals  Be"   71 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Hans    P.    Freece    Frontispiece 

Brigham  Young's  First  View  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake-. 17 

The  Mountain  Meadow  Massacre  27 

A  Polygamist's  Home  in  Southern  Utah   43 


A  TRIBUTE. 


Dr.  Wishard. 
Almost  a  score  of  years  ago  it  was  announced  to  the 
children  of  a  small  mission  school  in  Utah  that  "there  will 
be  services  to-night  in  the  (Mormon)  meeting-house.  Tell 
your  parents  to  come,  because  the  new  minister  wishes  to 
meet  them."  The  announcement  that  a  Presbyterian  cler- 
gyman would  occupy  a  Mormon  pulpit  may  seem  strange 
to  some,  but  those  familiar  with  the  Utah  situation  will 
smile  because  they  know  that  when  the  Mormons  very 
graciously  and  gallantly  offered  the  use  of  their  building, 
the  mission  teacher  and  a  few  scholars,  accompanied  in 
seme  cases  by  a  parent,  would  comprise  the  audience. 
And  it  was  so  in  this  instance,  there  being  present  abou' 
twelve,  all  told.    The  small  boys,  perhaps,  had  ideas  as 
to  w^hat  a  Presbyterian  was  like,  but  sorrowful  was  the 
disappointment    when    an   ordinary    looking    individual, 
wearing  a  square  coat  and  straggling  side-whiskers,  came 
into  the  room,  distributing  smiles  and  handshakes  to  each 
and  all.    But  whatever  of  disappointment  was  pictured  on 
their  faces  gave  way  to  awe  and  rapture  when  the  deep, 
sweet  tones  of  "Is  my  name  written  there?"  came  rolling 
out.     It  was  the  first  time  that  they  had  heard  a  man's 
\oice  raised  in  song,  and  such  a  voice!     One  small  boy 
sitting  behind  the  writer  whispered  to  his  mother,  "He 
looks  like  a  pig,  don't  he,  ma?"  to  which  he  received  an 
affimative  reply.    That  settled  it.    He  must  be  punished, 
and  he  was  actually  receiving  his  just  dues  behind  the 
*  meeting-house,"  after  the  meeting,  when  two  big  broth- 
eis  came  to  his  rescue,  and  the  whipping  that  a  certain 
boy  received  has  not  yet  been  forgotten.    Such  was  our 
first  meeting  with  Dr.  S.  E.  Wishard,  the  "old  man  elo- 
quent of  the  West."    To  meet  him  was  to  love  him;  to 
hear  him  was  to  trust  him;  to   follow  him  was  to  find 
Christ.    One  day  word  came  to  the  mission  schools,  one 
by  one,  that  Dr.  Wishard  lay  seriously  ill  at  his  home  in 

~7  — 


Ogden.  Many  prayers  ascended  to  the  throne,  and  were 
answered.  He  recovered  from  his  illness,  and  his  years 
of  service  in  Utah  were  almost  doubled.  The  work  was 
large,  the  need  was  larger.  Who  can  tell  of  the  kind 
words  he  spoke?  Who  can  tell  of  the  comfort  he  gave? 
V^ho  can  tell  of  the  assurance  he  brought  to  the  strug- 
gling Christian?  Who  can  tell  of  the  broken  hearts  tr 
V'hich  he  has  applied  the  Hearing  Balm?  Only  those  of 
Utah  and  Idaho  who  have  come  to  him  laden  with  sor- 
row, and  have  been  pointed  to  the  cross.  And  for  all 
these  kindnesses  the  Mormon  hierarchy  has  ridiculed 
him,  hated  him,  and  abused  him.  But  he  is  a  man  who 
has  stood  firm  through  all  these  years,  and  yielded  not 
one  whit.  He  is  the  one  man  most  feared  and  hated  by 
tlie  Mormon  hierarchy.  When  Dr.  Wishard  struck,  he 
struck  with  the  grace  of  God  because  of  that  which  was 
in  him.  With  his  faithful  band  of  chosen  few  he  did- 
v/age  a  battle  for  righteousness  through  many  years.  It 
was  a  struggle  in  which  there  could  be  no  compromise, 
for  he  knew  that  "God  is  not  mocked."  Missionaries 
came  and  went,  health  was  broken  and  spent,  but  this 
stalwart  soldier  of  the  Cross,  **shod  with  the  preparation 
of  the  gospel  of  peace,  having  his  loins  girt  about  with 
truth  and  bearing  the  shield  of  faith,"  endured  the  con- 
flict, and  when  he  is  called  home  he  will,  like  the  Spartan 
youth,  come  to  his  own  bringing  his  shield  with  him. 

He  has  gone  from  the  work  in  Utah  to  a  well-earned 
rest,  but  although  in  body  in  Los  Angeles,  in  spirit  he  is 
in  Utah.  In  the  Utah  work  "he  has  fought  a  good  fight, 
he  has  finished  his  course,  he  has  kept  the  faith;  hence- 
forth there  is  laid  up  for  him  the  crown  of  rigthteousness, 
which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  to  him  at 
that  day." 

Let  this  be  to  Dr.  Wishard  the  humble  tribute  of  a 
little  lad,  now  grown  to  manhood,  who  has  fought  for 
him,  loved  him,  and  who  fain  would  follow  him. 
New  York  City,  Hans  P.  Freece. 

—  8  — 


The  American  Tourist  in  Mormondom» 

Utah,  September,  1906. 
My  dear  Boy  :  * 

'liie  cry  of  persecution  has  for  many  years  been  the 
stocK  argument  and  the  chief  cause  for  a  favorable  con- 
sideration of  the   Mormon   propaganda.     This  cry  pro- 
tected them  for  many  years  in  Ohio,  Missouri  and   Il- 
linois, but  it  is  a  significant  fact  that,  in  every  State 
where  they  have  settled,  the  Gentiles  of  the  community 
have  been  forced  to  band  themselves  together  for  protec- 
tion from  the  assaults  of  the  Mormons.     In  two  States 
where  the  Mormons  were  numerically  strong — Missouri 
and  Illinois — it  became  necessary  for  the  Gentiles  to  call 
on  the  State  authorities  to  protect  them  from  their  as- 
saults and  ravages.     Even  to-day,  fifty  years  after  the 
Mormons  were  driven  from  Nauvoo  by   the   State   militia, 
the  old  settlers  of  that  region  are  ever  ready  to  pour  into 
the  listening  ear  harrowing  tales  of  cruelties  and  inde- 
cencies practiced  by  the  Mormons.    But  when  we  call  to 
mind  the  fact  that  the  blackest  pages  of  Mormon  history 
have  been  written  in  Utah,  and  that  their  revolting  inde- 
cencies and  murdering  of  (hundreds  of  American  citizens 
occurred  in  Utah,  is  it  any  wonder  that  American  citizens 
of  the  Mormon-infected  districts  appeal  to  both  Church 
and  State   for  redress?     If  the  citizens  of  New  York, 
Ohio,  Missouri  and  Illinois  were  not  able  to  tolerate  them 
in  their  midst  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Church,  what 
must  the  conditions  have  been  in  the  West  after  the 
complete  development  of  the  Mormon  propaganda,  the 
height  of  cruelty,  lasciviousness  and  oppression  having 
culminated  after  their  departure  for  Utah? 

However,  this  same  cry  of  persecution  has  protected 
them  in  the  West  for  many  years,  but  the  recent  Smoot 
investigation,  the  earlier  case  of  B.  H.  Roberts,  and  the 


period  of  inquiry  by  the  Federal  courts  previous  to  the 
granting  of  statehood  of  Utah,  make  clear  the  fact  that 
religion  and  sectarian  differences  do  not  enter  into  the 
question  of  persecution,  but  that  it  is  a  matter  of  obey- 
ing the  laws  of  the  land,  the  laws  of  common  decency,  and 
a  demand  that  the  members  of  the  hierarchy  shall  come 
within  a  code  of  morals  that  will  not  be  a  stench  in  the 
nostrils  of  outraged  humanity.  Therefore  this  cry  of 
persecution  can  no  longer  be  used  to  work  upon  the  feel- 
ings of  a  sympathizing  public ;  but  a  new  mode  of  attack 
has  been  strongly  and  effectively  organized — that  of  cap- 
turing the  American  tourist. 

Every  summer  thousands  of  tourists  go  West.  Most 
ot  them,  the  Mormons  say  about  100,000,  stop  over  in 
Srlt  Lake  to  visit  the  Tabernacle,  hear  the  organ  and  see 
the  Temple  with  all  of  its  mysteries.  For  the  conveni- 
ence of  these  many  visitors  the  Mormon  Church  main- 
tains a  bureau  of  information  on  the  Temple  Square. 
Here  the  sightseers  are  met  by  old  and  young  men  or 
pretty  girls,  to  suit  the  occasion, who  receive  the  visitors 
with  open  arms  and  bland  smiles;  they  feed  the  gullible, 
and  make  themselves  agreeable  to  the  better  informed. 
Ihe  finer  points  of  Mormonism,  which  points  are  the 
palatable  truths  of  Christianity  appropriated  from  the 
Christian  Church  for  the  occasion,  are  explained;  but  the 
real  facts  of  Mormonism  are  guardedly  kept  in  the  back- 
ground. The  common  tourist  is  directed  to  the  auditori- 
um of  the  Tabernacle  for  the  organ  recital,  but  the  visi- 
tors of  note  and  the  newspaper  men  are  taken  to  the 
inner  sanctum,  and  there  sit  with  bated  breath  during  the 
most  pleasing  of  organ  recitals.  It  often  happens  that 
these  noted  visitors  are  next  shown  through  the  city,  and 
a  visit  is  made  to  the  points  of  interest.  As  a  natural  re- 
sult, when  these  visitors  are  later  interviewed  by  the  re- 
porters from  the  official  Mormon  paper,  they  have  many 


10  • 


kind  and  complimentary  words  to  say  in  behalf  of  these 
apparently  abused  and  misunderstood  Mormon  people. 
In  fact,  they  answer  the  reporter  that  they  have  seen  no 
polygamy,  no  immorality;  that  the  Mormons  had  received 
them  very  kindly,  and  that  they  are  a  peaceful  and  liberty- 
loving  people.  Consequently,  when  the  newspaper  men  re- 
turn to  their  respective  papers  they  give  an  account  of 
their  trip,  and  in  their  articles  entirely  exonerate  the  hierar- 
chy from  the  many  slanders  which  the  (un)  Christian  min- 
isters seem  to  delight  to  heap  upon  them.  It  is  safe  to  state 
that  the  annual  visiting  tourists  do  more  to  spread  a  favor- 
able view  of  the  Mormon  propoganda  than  the  combined  ef- 
forts of  the  2,200  Mormon  elders  on  the  mission  field  today. 
In  view  of  the  above,  permit  us  to  present  the  ex- 
periences of  one  man  only.  He  is  a  well-known  Presby- 
terian divine.  On  his  way  West  he  stopped  off  in  Salt  Lake 
to  visit  a  brother  pastor,  and,  incidentally,  to  learn  some- 
thing of  the  Mormon  system  from  personal  observation.  He 
and  the  Salt  Lake  pastor,  going  to  Temple  Block,  were  re- 
ceived by  a  young  woman  who  was  rather  good  looking, 
educated  and  intelligent,  with  a  pious  mein.  Questions  put 
to  her  were  met  and  disposed  of  with  an  assurance  that 
begets  confidence.  The  old  Doctor  was  delighted,  and  in  re- 
ply to  his  questions  as  to  whether  the  Mormons  still  taught 
and  practiced  polygamy,  she  said:  "No,  sir;  we  used  to,  but 
we  don't  any  more."  With  such  a  startling  statement  from 
that  particular  young  woman  the  Salt  Lake  pastor  suggested 
to  his  visiting  brother  that  he  ask  the  young  lady  her  name 
before  leaving  the  grounds.  Accordingly,  when  the  party 
returned  to  the  Bureau  of  Information  the  young  woman 
asked  the  visitors  to  register,  and  then  gave  them  some 
literature  (mis)  representing  Mormonism,  with  the  hope 
-that  they  would  be  kind  enough  to  read  the  same,  and  thus 
overcome  their  prejudice  against  the  abused  Latter  Day 
Saints.    At  this  point  the  gentleman  from  Philadelphia  sug- 


—  II 


gested  that  she  give  him  her  name,  so  that  when  he  returned 
to  his  home  he  could  send  her  Hterature  presenting  his  view 
of  the  Bible.  She  readily  gave  him  her  name.  As  the  two 
men  left  the  g:i-ounds  the  visiting  pastor  jgrew  eloquent  in  his 
admiration  of  tihis  young  woman.  He  was  positive  that  if 
there  were  more  such  young  women  in  the  church,  poly- 
gamy would  soon  be  an  issue  of  the  past,  etc.  The  Salt 
Lake  pastor  quietly  took  him  to  his  study  and  produced 
there  Salt  Lake  new^spapers,  all  of  the  same  date,  with  the 
large  headlines,  stating  that  some  few  weeks  before  this 
very  young  woman  ihad  become  the  mother  of  a  child,  and 
that  a  well-known  polygamist  was  the  father  of  tlie  child. 

Your  Father. 


12  — 


Polygamy. 

Utah,  October,  1906. 
My  Dear  Boy  : 

When  polygamy  was  officially  announced  to  the  Mor- 
mon Church  in  Europe  many  of  the  converts  who  had  not 
yet  gone  to  Utah  turned  from  the  Utah  Branch  of  the 
church  and  joined  the  Josephites,  the  Strangites  and  others. 
But  in  Utah  the  people  received  it.  The  original  Revelation, 
together  with  the  sermons  of  Orson  Pratt  and  Brigham 
Young,  in  favor  of  it,  were  printed  in  the  Deseret  News 
(Extra),  September  14,  1852,  also  in  the  Journal  of  Dis- 
courses, Volume  4,  Page  yy. 

In  Utah  a  rush  was  made  for  desirable  wives.  Old  men 
married  girls,  trading  their  young  daughters  to  one  an- 
other. It  was  the  crowning  joy  of  a  great  privilege  for  the 
true  believers.  The  duty  and  importance  of  polygamy  was 
presented  Sunday  after  Sunday.  It  was  the  main  theme  of 
discourse.  Hundreds  of  girls  thirteen  and  fourteen  years 
of  age  were  either  persuaded  or  forced  into  it.  Girls  not 
yet  in  their  teens  were  sealed  to  old  reprdbates  with  an 
agreement  with  the  latter  that  they  should  wait  until  the 
children  should  be  old  enough  to  act  as  wives.  Events  oc- 
curred which  would  seem  incredible  to-day  had  we  not  lived 
and  acted  ourselves  in  those  days.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  a 
very  recent  president  of  the  church  was  married  to  a  four- 
teen-year-old girl  just  before  he  died. 

One  man  married  a  woman,  her  daughter  and  her  moth- 
er—three generations.  Some  men  even  took  their  own 
daughters  as  spiritual  wives.  So  many  marriages,  formed 
so  loosely,  naturally  resulted  in  much  divorce.  Conse- 
quently many  women  were  married  and  remarried  again  and 
again  to  different  men.  Girls  were  married  and  divorced 
many  times,  thus  going  the  rounds  of  the  priests. 

Demoralization  set  in  and  vulgarity  became  rank.  When 
—  13  — 


1  entered  Utah  tliere  were  manifest  many  sad  results. 
Young  girls  were  motners,  but  whetlier  they  were  married 
or  who  were  the  father  of  their  children  were  minor  ques- 
tions. /Vpostle  Kimball  used  to  refer  to  his  waves  as  "my 
cows." 

The  entrance  of  Johnston's  Army  produced  a  re- 
action. The  later  anti-polygamy  legislation  was  passed  and 
men  found  it  convenient  to  desert  women  and  children  de- 
pendent upon  them. 

Brigham  Young  had  wives  galore.  Besides  his  twenty- 
three  or  so  of  w^ell-known  wives  in  Salt  Lake  City,  he  had 
many  spiritual  wives  scattered  throughout  the  territory. 

That  was  the  w^orst  stage  of  polygamy.  It  has  gradually 
grown  better  and  decreased  only  under  much  pressure. 
From  time  to  time  it  has  taken  an  upward  bound,  but  as 
many  times  has  again  been  partially  checked  by  legislation. 
The  Mormon  Church,  how^ever,  still  holds  to  the  Revela- 
tion as  a  Divine  command.  They  have  no  intention  of  giv- 
ing up  polygamy. 

Some  of  the  most  fanatical  really  believe  that  the  day 
will  come  when  the  practice  can  be  openly  revived,  and  that 
is  to  come  through  political  influence. 

But  the  system  cannot  live  in  civilization.  We  need  but 
to  observe  India,  Africa  and  the  Malay  Peninsula,  where 
there  is  a  system  of  polygamy  and  has  always  been,  and  we 
find  those  nations  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  civilization  and  edu- 
cation. But  on  the  other  hand,  in  England,  France  and  Ger- 
many, where  there  is  not  polygamy,  w^e  find  those  nations  at 
the  head  of  the  world's  powers  and  in  the  advance  of  civili- 
zation. If  we  drag  women  down  and  make  a  slave  and  a 
chattel  out  of  them,  they  will  drag  their  sons  down  with 
them.  But  if  we  elevate  woman  and  place  her  by  the  side 
of  man  where  God  placed  her,  she  will  lift  her  children  up 
with  her  and  thus  we  will  have  our  nation. 

Your  Father. 
—  14  — 


The  First  Climpse  of  Ukik 

Utah,  November,  1906. 
My  dear  Boy  : 

You  ask  me  to  tell  you  about  our  journey  across  the 
plains  from  Council  Bluits  to  Utah.  My  boy,  that  can 
never  ibe  told.  Words  cannot  be  found  in  the  English 
language  to  depict  those  horrible  days.  It  is  a  story  so  pa- 
thetic, so  dramatic  and  so  unreal  that  no  author  needs  draw 
upon  his  imagination  to  depict  what  might  have  existed  in 
any  stage  of  society.  To  tell  of  their  sufferings  and  their 
horrible  retaliation  for  wrongs  inflicted  upon  them,  calls  to 
mind  the  crimes  of  religious  fanatics  far  back  in  the  earlier 
centuries. 

But  we  cannot  inflict  punishment  upon  the  Mormons  to- 
day for  crimes  committed  in  those  dark  days,  nor  can  the 
prayers  of  saints  wash  the  blood-stains  from  the  hands  of 
Brigham  Young  and  the  blood-cursed  Danites. 

Joseph  Smith  was  a  man  of  commanding  mien  and  pe- 
culiar genius ;  a  man  to  whom  it  might  have  been  given  to 
lead  thousands  and  thousands  of  souls  onward  and  upward 
to  a  better  life,  but  who  chose  the  path  of  crime  and  de- 
struction, leading  tne  besmirched  souls  of  his  crazed  fol- 
lowers down,  down  into  the  depths  of  darkness  and  misery, 
all  to  gratify  a  lustful  passion. 

Drunk  with  the  influence  he  exercised  over  his  people, 
weakened  by  his  own  passion  and  overcome  by  his  own 
selfishness,  he  tried  to  exercise  his  influence  over  the  pale 
of  the  *"White  City"  and  fell,  meeting  his  death  at  the 
hands  of  an  infuriated  mob. 

With  their  leader  gone,  the  Saints  scattered  right  and 
left  and  the  Mormon  Church  might  not  even  have  lived  in 
history  had  it  not  been  for  that  indomitable  leader,  Brigham 
Young.  Gathering  a  few  of  the  remaining  people  together, 
and  placing  their  household  goods  in  hand-carts,  they  turned 

—  15  — 


their  faces  westward  and  began  that  memorable  journey 
'•'Nauvoo,  111. 

that  has  gone  down  in  history  as  the  most  hazardous  task 
ever  attempted  by  man.  Almost  before  the  journey  was 
well  'begun  many  of  their  number  had  died,  and  during 
that  awful  Avinter  the  old  Salt  Lake  trail  was  blazed  each 
morning  with  fresh  mounds  of  earth. 

On  the  24th  of  July,  1847,  Brigham  Young,  with  only  a 
few  of  those  who  had  started  across  the  plains  with  him, 
stood  on  the  summit  of  the  Wasatch  Mountains  on  Ensign 
Peak  and  looked  into  the  valley  beyond.  He  saw  below 
him  only  a  vast  and  dry  desert,  blown  with  sands  and 
alkali  dust.  Great  Salt  Lake  glistened  in  the  sun,  and  as 
Brigham  Young  cast  his  eyes  over  that  dreary  waste  he 
said :  "Thank  God  we  have  found  a  place  where  our  ene- 
mies will  not  care  to  come!" 

I  stood  near  the  same  spot  not  long  since  and  cast  my 
eyes  over  that  same  valley.  Below,  that  once  dreary  waste 
was  now  a  garden  spot.  The  miles  and  miles  of  orchards, 
the  ripening  wheat,  patches  of  greenest  alfalfa,  plowed  land 
— all  combined  to  make  a  beautiful  picture,  and  the  entire 
scene  appeared  as  a  beautiful  home-Avoven  carpet,  spread 
out  in  the  sun. 

Far  to  the  west  could  be  seen  the  shining  Provo  Lake, 
out  of  which  flowed  the  Jordan  River,  winding  its  way  down 
the  valley,  and  at  last  emptying  into  the  great  salt  sea, 
making  a  picture  not  unlike  that  which  Moses  must  have 
seen  so  many  centuries  ago  as  he  stood  and  looked  into  his 
promised  land. 

It  would  seem  as  though  God  had  led  His  children  into 
the  most  fertile  and  richest  land  in  the  continent.  The 
^lormons  like  to  point  it  out  and  explain  it  in  that  way. 

The  Great  Salt  Lake,  into  which  two  large  rivers  are 
continually  pouring  their  streams,  has  no  visible  outlet.  It 
rises  and  falls  several  feet  at  several  year  intervals.  Bathers 

—  16  — 


17 


float  on  the  water's  surface  and  no  bottom  has  as  yet  been 
reached.  The  Jordan  River  runs  through  a  valley  unsur- 
passed in  scenery  and  fruit-growing.  In  Southern  Utah 
there  is  an  outcrop  of  iron  ore  fifteen  miles  long  and  five 
miles  wide,  owned  ^by  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  In 
Dixie,  Southern  Utah,  the  farmer  grows  figs,  almonds, 
pomegranates  and  other  semi-4ropical  fruits.  Almost  all 
minerals  have  been  found  near  the  surface,  and  Utah,  al- 
most untouched  in  mineral  development,  stands  already 
third  in  the  Union  as  a  mineral-producing  state. 

When  the  business  men  of  the  East  shall  have  been 
assured  that  their  ventures  into  Utah  will  not  be  destroyed 
and  tihwarted  by  Mormon  priesthood,  Utah  will  have  a 
great  awakening  and  emigration  will  set  in  to  such  a  great 
extent  that  the  Gentiles  will  be  in  the  majority.  I  hope  that 
day  may  soon  come. 

Your  Father. 


-i8- 


Jorgeru 

Utah,  December,  906. 
My  dear  Boy  : 

I  seem  to  have  what  some  peopk  call  a  religious  weak- 
ness and  in  the  course  of  my  enthusiasm  was  ltd  into  Mor- 
monism.    But  in  this  letter  I  want  to  tell  you  about  a  friend 
of  mine.    We  were  thrown  together  as  children.    His  moth- 
er died,  his  father  married  again,  bringing  into  the  home  a 
cruel  step-mother.     As  a  result,  his  father  began  to  lay  by 
an  occasional  dollar  and  placed  it  on  interest  for  the  lad. 
As  Jorgen  grew  up, — that  was  his  name, — he  also  worked 
hard  and  saved  his  money,  so  that  when  he  neared'  his  ma- 
jority he  had  almost  $1,000  in  the  bank.    He  was  handsome, 
prosperous  and  a  good  dancer.     He  moved  m  the  best  so- 
ciety of  the  community  and  was  considered  an  all-round  fine 
fellow.    But  his  trouble  began  with  a  young  woman,  the  de- 
tails of  which  you  may  assume.     The  affair  brought  shame 
and  pain  to  him,  but  he  still  refused  to  marry  the  young 
woman.    About  this  time  the  Mormon  elders  came  into  our 
community,  bringing  with  them,  we  believed,  the  Christian 
doctrine  in  all  its  purity.     The  Mormon  missionaries  were 
kind,  they  were  willing  to  work  on   the   farms   for  their 
board,  and  the  people  began  to  look  upon  them  as  superior 
and  Godly  men.     To  these  missionaries  Jorgen  came  with 
his  heavy  conscience.     They  told  him  that  the  only  possible 
escape  from  his  sin  was  to  join  the  Mormon  Church.  "But," 
said  Jorgen,  "people  say  that  Brigham  Young  is  a  polyga- 
mist.    How  do  I  know  that  Joseph  Smith  is  not  one  of  the 
false  prophets  of  which  the  Bible  speaks  ?"    But  the  elders 
said  that  Brigham  Young  was  not  a  polygamist,  that  poly- 
gamy was  not  a  part  of  the  Mormon  system,  and  that  the 
Book  of  Mormon  opposed  polygamy. 

Shortly  after  this,  the  Mormon  elders  held  meetings  about 
ten  miles  from  Jorgen's  home  He  promised  to  come  and 
bring  his   father.     But  being  very  weary   from  his  hard 

—  19— 


day's  work,  he  did  not  go  to  church,  but  went  to  his  room. 
He  realized  then  that  he  had  broken  his  promise  to  the 
elders,  and  for  the  first  time  he  felt  the  need  of  a  higher 
power  and  at  last  he  knelt  by  his  bed  to  pray.  He  prayed 
earnestly,  tears  came  to  his  eyes,  his  voice  choked,  and 
then,— what  was  that  on  the  wall?  A  light?  Yes,  surely 
it  w^as.  Yet,  it  was  a  testimony  from  God  that  the  Mor- 
mons were  His  messengers.  He  became  a  believer  and  was 
shortly  baptized. 

The  summer  passed.  Winter  was  w-ell  on  its  course  when 
the  Alormon  elders  began  to  prepare  their  converts  for  the 
ingathering  to  Zion  (Salt  Lake)  in  the  spring.  I  was  one 
of  the  last  to  board  the  ship.  I  met  Jorgen.  What  had 
happened  to  him?  He  was  downcast,  poor  and  sickly.  He 
had  lost  the  springing  step  and  the  buoyant  smile.  He  had 
lost  the  hearty  grip  in  the  hand-shake  and  the  gleam  from 
his  eye.  He  told  me  one  day:  "What  shall  I  do?  I  have 
left  behind  me  the  sweetest  baby  and  the  most  innocent  girl. 
I  have  sinned  against  the  girl,  against  God,  and  have 
wronged  myself.  If  I  could  only  die!"  No  one  but  myself 
saw  much  of  his  movements  during  the  voyage. 

WMien  we  landed  in  New  York  we  took  rail  to  Omaha 
and  started  on  our  journey  across  the  plains.  Here  again  I 
saw  Jorgen  from  time  to  time,  walking  sometimes  behind 
the  carts,  sometimes  beside  them,  always  forlorn  and  cast 
down.  I  saw  him  go  away  in  the  woods  to  pray.  I  heard 
him  pray  aloud  on  his  knees  with  hands  stretched  upward, 
praying  for  relief.  He  grew  weaker  and  weaker  and  finally 
w^as  left  behind,  too  feeble  to  follow  the  train.  He  was 
picked  up  by  following  ox  teams  stuffed  into  a  covered  wagon 
on  top  of  some  boxes.  The  wagon  jolted  and  his  bruises 
festered.  The  flies  settled  on  him  and  soon  his  sores  and 
bruises  were  full  of  life.  No  one  cared  for  him.  His  suf- 
fering was  indescribable.  One  evening  he  was  dragged 
out  of  the  wagon,  utterly  helpless,  and  placed  in  a  tent.  The 
next  morning  he  was  dead.  Your  Father. 

—  20  — 


Wh})  I  Became  a  Mormon. 

Utah,  January,  1907. 

Alv  PEAK  r>OY : 

I  hardly  know  how  I  happened  to  become  a  Mormon. 
My  earliest  recollections  go  back  to  the  farm  in  Denmark 
where  I  was  reared  by  a  man  who  was  a  stranger  to  me.  He 
used  to  tell  me  that  I  was  crazy  when  I  was  about  sixteen. 
I  met  the  Mormon  elders  and  listened  to  them.  But  it  hurt 
me  most  when  I  was  called  crazy  for  listening  to  and  sym- 
pathizing with  a  people  in  whom  there  was  no  guile,  but 
were  preaching  repentance  to  the  world.  I  had  always  been 
an  innocent  boy,  neither  drinking,  nor  gambling,  nor  swear- 
ing, and  yet  I  was  ridiculed  for  listening  to  what  I  thought 
was  the  Word  of  God.  But  I  have  changed  my  mind.  The 
Alormons  taught  us  that  we  should  some  day  be  gods,  and 
if  we  would  accept  the  faith  we  should  soon  be  able  to 
perform  miracles.  Did  not  Jesus  say :  ''You  shall  do  great- 
er things  than  rthese  because  I  go  to  my  Father  ?"  So  it  waS' 
that  many  of  us  believed  that  the  Mormon  priests  were 
capable  of  performing  miracles,  and  in  time  we  should  do 
likewise.  I  remember  a  blacksmith  who  had  received  the 
Celestial  powers,  and  it  was  said  he  was  performing  mira- 
cles; but  when  I  came  to  Utah  and  looked  him  up,  this 
glory  had  worn  away. 

Lest  Satan  should  put  doubt  into  our  hearts,  prepara- 
tions for  our  departure  to  America  were  hurriedly  made. 
On  board  the  ship  we  were  under  the  command  of  certain 
priests  of  the  Melkisidec  Order.  We  believed  that  they  would 
perform  miracles.  One  day  a  storm  came  up  and  the 
waves  threatened  to  sink  the  ship.  I  was  sure  that  the 
elders  would  still  the  sea,  but  they  huddled  together 
frightened  like  the  rest  of  us.  But  surely  they  would  raise 
the  dead !  No,  they  died  by  the  score  and  were  thrown  into 
the  sea.    But  it  was  rumored  that  they  had  healed  many  sick 

—  21  — 


and  cast  oat  devils  in  the  steerage.  By  and  by  some  of  the 
weaker  passengers  were  taken  ill  and  became  filthy  and  were 
removed  to  other  parts  of  the  ship.  I  could  not  understand. 
We  had  been  taught  from  the  beginning  that  we  should 
all  eat  and  -dress  alike  and  should  be  equally  blessed  and  kept 
by  God.  But  in  our  eagerness  to  come  to  Zion,  the  city 
of  God,  we  forgot  these  minor  matters.  The  priests  read  to 
us  daily  from  the  Book  of  Life  (Mormon  books)  and  spoke 
to  us  in  the  name  of  God.  Said  one  priest:  "You  have  no 
need  of  the  Bible.  I  am  your  Bible.  From  me  cometh  the 
living  words  of  God."  But  one  day  this  man  of  God  found 
it  necessary  to  knock  down  one  of  the  brethren  because  he 
insisted  that  the  priest  had  falsely  taken  from  him  some  of 
his  emigration  funds.  The  priests  would  take  our  money 
and  buy  our  tickets  and  provide  for  our  food,  and  I  had 
heard  many  complaints  to  the  effect  that  they  were  defraud- 
ing the  believing  followers.  And  such  is  life.  But  to  be 
knocked  down  for  asking  justice,  it  meant  for  this  brother 
that  he  lost  his  faith  and  as  soon  as  we  landed  in  New  York 
he  went  his  way.  For  a  Mormon  priest  to  strike  a  brother 
was  permissible,  because  he  did  it  with  authority  from  God. 
^Ve  were  taught  in  Utah  for  many  years  that  it  was  our  duty 
to  knock  down  any  man  who  spoke  against  the  Lord's 
Anointed,  i.  e.  Brigham  Young. 

As  I  look  back  over  those  early  years,  they  seem  to  me 
a  dream.  I  am  near  the  brink  of  the  grave  and  I  do  not  care 
which  w^ay  the  wind  blows,  but  at  that  time  we  had  come 
to  the  long-looked- for  Zion,  the  city  of  God  which  should 
be  taken  up  into  the  skies  to  meet  the  coming  of  the  Saviour, 
and  that  coming  should  be  in  a  few  years.  As  we  lay 
resting  in  the  tithing-yard  we  were  much  encouraged  and 
rejoiced  to  see  Brigham  coming  to  shake  hands  with  us 
As  many  as  were  able  were  put  into  the  line.  Behind 
Brigham  came  Heber  Kimball,  the  First  Counselor,  dressed 
in  a  summer  suit  and  coatless.     He  is  the  man  whose  re- 


—  22 


ligious  writings  compose  the  vilest  and  most  revolting  stuff 
that  I  have  ever  seen  in  print.  He  was  smiling  and  saying 
pleasantries  to  .the  eager  emigrants.  Brigham  was  then 
Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator  for  the  entire  world.  As  I 
lay  near  the  fence  too  weak  even  to  stand  I  thought 
that  if  he  would  only  say  "Arise,"  or  if  I  could 
touch  the  hem  of  his  garment  I  would  immediately  take  up 
my  bed  and  walk. 

To  my  surprise,  God's  chosen  people  in  Zion  ap- 
peared much  as  other  human  beings.  They  did  not  have 
all  things  in  common  as  did  the  Sainfts  in  the  olden  days. 
They  were  not  all  dressed  alike.  Some  were  well-to-do, 
while  others  were  poor.  Farmers  had  come  into  the  set- 
tlement and  they  were  poorly  clad,  while  the  smaller  chil- 
dren had  very  few  cldthes  on  them.  My  attention  was  at- 
tracted to  one  young  man  who  wore  buckskin  pants  and 
around  his  hips  was  buckled  a  revolver,  and  cartridges  were 
in  his  belt.  I  was  told  it  was  customary  to  carry  fire-arms, 
and  that  Brigham's  sons  made  a  practice  of  it.  I  could  not 
understand  why  such  was  necessary  in  the  city  wherp  all 
was  love  and  brotherly  kindness. 

To  my  great  surprise,  our  hand-carts  were  taken  from  us 
to  pay  a  debt  to  Brigham  when  the  supply  trains  had  come 
to  meet  us.  We  ihad  purchased  those  carts  in  Council  Bluffs, 
and  the  provisions  which  had  come  to  us  through  the  rescue 
party  had  been  donated  by  the  people.  Still,  Brigham  took 
our  carts  to  pay  for  them.  I  did  not  understand,  but  it  did 
not  occur  to  me  for  one  moment  Brigham  could  possibly  do 
wrong  or  make  a  mistake. 

We  were  left  to  shift  for  ourselves.  My  wife  and  I  had 
each  a  blanket,  one  tin  cup,  each  a  suit  of  clothes  and  a 
few  other  rags  and  a  frying  pan.  Such  were  our  sole  pos- 
sessions, and  I  was  still  weak  and  helpless  from  my  long 
siege  of  mountain  fever.  I  again  saw  my  wife,  the  tender 
girl-^bride  that  she  was,  crying,  and  as  I  think  of  that  day 

—  23  — 


now,  although  it  is  many  years  ago,  the  tears  force  them- 
selves out.  She  had  been  first  helping  this  one  and  then 
the  other  to  pull  the  hand-cart  across  the  plains  She  had 
buried  her  mother,  and  I  was  helpless,  without  a  covering 
for  our  heads.  And  so  it  was  that  the  pure,  deep  love 
which  we  had  had  for  each  other  when  we  left  our  native 
land  had  been  worn  away  on  the  dreary  deserts.  The  real 
joy  that  had  been  ours  had  gone,  never  to  come  back,  and 
she  realized  it  then  m.ore  than  ever  before. 

Your  Father. 


—  24  — 


The  Mountain  MeadoTV  Massacre, 

Utah,  February,  1907. 

My  dear  Boy: 

You  have  asked  me  several  times  what  I  knew  of  the 
Mountain  Meadow  Massacre.  I  dislike  to  bring  to  mmd 
those  dark  days,  and  would  that  all  might  forget  those 
awful  crimes.  If  the  leaders  of  the  Mormon  Churx:h  to-day 
would  live  within  the  law  of  the  land,  and  dbserve  the  rules 
of  common  decency,  I  would  refrain  from  writmg  of  this 
event  or  any  of  the  other  dark  deeds.  But  since  Reed  Smoot 
so  boastfully  declares  that  he  is  "not  ashamed  of  the  posi- 
tion and  the  power  of  the  Mormon  Church  to-day  and  the 
more  I  study  the  history  of  the  church  the  more  am  I  con- 
vinced that  it  is  at  all  times  the  same,"  it  is  well  that  you 
know   some  of  the  things   of  which   Reed  Smoot   is  not 

ashamed. 

The  murdered  emigrants  were  of  the  Methodist  faith 
and  were  on  their  way  to  California  to  seek  new  homes. 
The  chief  cause  of  the  massacre  was  a  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  Mormons  to  come  into  possession  of  the  new  wagons, 
fine  horses  and  the  abundant  farming  implements  which  the 
emigrants  had;  all  valued  at  about  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  first  policy  was  to  starve  the  emigrants.  Ac- 
cordingly one  of  the  apostles  was  sent  ahead  of  the  train 
to  warn  the  settlers  that  they  must  sell  these  emigrants  food 
for  neither  man  oior  beast.  For  a  time  this  apostle  actually 
traveled  with  the  emigrants,  camped  near  them,  and  advised 
them  where  they  might  camp  and  recoup  their  tired  ani- 
mals before  setting  out  on  their  journey  across  the  desert. 
It  was  on  the  very  spot  advised  as  a  resting-place  by  the 
apostle,  a  vertible  trap,  where  the  massacre  occurred— Cane 
Springs,  about  forty  miles  south  of  Cedar  City. 

On  their  way  thither,   as  they  were  passing  through 

—  25  — 


Cedar  City,  a  young  man,  Aden  by  name,  met  a  man  whom 
his  father  had  befriended  in  Kentucky  a  few  years  previous, 
when  the  former  had  been  a  Mormon  missionary  in  that 
state.  He  gave  Mr.  Aden  a  meal  and  allowed  him  to  take 
some  onions  away  with  him.  This  kindness  was  deserving 
of  punishment  from  his  Mormon  neighbors,  and  one, 
Barney  Carter,  pulled  a  picket  from  the  fence  and  struck 
him  over  the  head,  and  from  that  day  to  the  time  of  his 
death  he  remained  an  idiot. 

This  company  of  emigrants  were  no  sooner  camped  at 
Cane  Springs  than  they  were  attacked  by  a  band  of  Indians, 
who  subsequently  proved  to  be  a  band  of  painted  Mormons 
manoeuvering  under  command  of  John  D.  Lee,  Lieutenant 
at  Cedar  City,  he  being  under  Brigham  Young,  the  then 
Governor  of  Utah  Territory.  Their  repulse  was  quick  and 
decisive.  The  emigrants  threw  up  embankments,  but  they 
were  not  in  a  position  to  protect  themselves,  because  they 
were  camped  between  two  knolls,  from  whose  tops  the  Mor- 
mons poured  in  a  cross-fire.  It  was  the  place  selected  for 
them  by  the  apostle,  and  they  had  fallen  into  the  trap. 

The  vigil  kept  by  the  besiegers  was  so  severe  that  it  was 
instant  death  to  go  to  the  spring  for  water,  only  a  short 
distance  away.  Several  men  were  shot  down  attempting 
to  reach  the  spring.  One  of  the  most  cruel  and  revolting 
deeds  was  the  cold-blodded  murder  of  two  little  girls  as 
they  were  going  after  water.  The  attempt  to  commit  this 
massacre  while  posing  as  Indians  proved  futile.  Accord- 
ingly, John  D.  Lee  resorted  to  strategy.  The  besiegers 
were  called  off,  and  in  a  short  time  the  emigrants  saw  a 
company  of  soldiers  approaching  bearing  the  Stars  and 
Stripes.  Men  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief,  women  wept  for  joy, 
and  the  old  pastor  of  the  flock  knelt  down  and  thanked 
God  for  deliverance.  Mr.  L?e  is  said  to  have  shed  tears 
when  he  saw  the  plight  and  awful  suffering  of  the  people. 
Kind-hearted  Mr.  Lee !    He  had  come  to  their  rescue !  First 

—  26- 


27  — 


he  must  talk  to  the  Indians  and  appease  their  supposed 
wrath.  Retiring  for  a  pretended  consuhation,  he  returned, 
stating  that  the  Indians  had  promised  to  stop  the  siege,  but 
the  emigrants  must  give  up  their  arms  to  him,  as  he  was 
the  accredited  military  authority  under  Governor  Brigham 
Young,  otherwise  he  could  not  protect  them.  Give  up  their 
arms?  Certainly.  Guns,  pistols  and  knives  were  given  up 
and  placed  in  the  wagons  with  the  dead  and  wounded.  The 
women  and  children  followed  behind  the  wagons  and  the 
men  came  next,  each  guarded  by  one  of  Lee's  men,  and  the 
company  headed  toward  Cedar  City.  And  now,  God  help 
them!  When  they  reached  the  point  of  the  hill,  Bishop 
Dame  cried  out,  ''Israel,  do  your  duty !"  And  at  that  com- 
mand the  soldiers  murdered  the  men  in  cold  blood,  and 
then  ran  forward  to  join  the  Indians,  who  had  previously 
been  concealed  in  the  cedars,  to  complete  the  massacre.  O 
God !  was  it  not  enough  that  those  innocent  and  tender 
maids  should  see  fathers  and  sweethearts  slain  before  their 
eyes,  and  then  die  with  them,  before  they  should  suffer  a 
thousand  deaths  and  shame?  But  we  close  the  awful  scene. 
When  night  came  steahng  down  the  mountain  side  it  hid 
from  vulgar  gaze  the  nude  and  mangled  bodes  of  130  hu- 
man beings.  The  murderers  had  stripped  the  bodies  and 
left  them  to  become  carrion. 

The  spoils  were  sold  later  at  auction  by  the  bishop  at 
Cedar  City.  The  bell  on  the  ta^bernacle  in  that  city  to-day 
is  said  to  have  been  taken  at  the  ''Siege  of  Sebastopol,"  as 
the  Mormons  leeringly  termed  the  slaughter.  The  bodies 
were  finally  buried  by  a  lone  Mormon,  but  not  until  the 
bones  had  been  picked  clean  by  the  coyotes  and  vultures. 
Two  years  later  representatives  of  the  War  Department, 
as  they  were  camped  on  the  spot,  investigating  the  massacre, 
buried  the  remaining  bones.  Over  these  bones  were  erect- 
ed a  monument,  and  a  cross  placed  thereon,  on  which  was 
written :  "Vengeance  is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lor  d." 

—  28-- 


The  monument  put  up  by  the  United  States  soldiers  has 
almost  fallen  away,  but  the  remains  of  the  foundation  may 
yet  be  seen.  The  meadow  to-day  is  not  the  beautiful  spot 
that  it  was.  It  would  seem  that  the  curse  of  God  has  fallen 
on  the  soil.  Where  the  green  grass  cheered,  there  is  bleak 
soil,  and  the  wind  blows  an  unwelcome  chill  into  one's  bones 
as  he  stands  and  views  the  scene  of  that  awful  crime.  The 
floods  have  washed  a  large  and  unsightly  ravine  through  the 
center  of  the  barren  waste,  and  it  is  almost  impassable  even 
on  foot.  As  far  as  I  am  able  to  ascertain,  the  last  Indian 
who  had  a  share  in  the  massacre  died  last  summer  at  Pan- 
guitch  Lake,  in  Southern  Utah,  during  the  tent  meetings 
which  the  Presbyterian  missionaries  were  conducting  there 
at  that  time.  I  have  been  told  that  there  is  but  one  sru- 
viving  white  man  who  took  a  part  in  the  massacre,  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Knight,  living  in  Southern  Utah.  Mr.  Higbee, 
who  was  first  in  military  authority  during  the  massacre,  died 
a  year  ago  in  Cedar  City.  The  latter  part  of  his  life  was  a 
hell  on  earth.  He  was  partially  insane  most  of  the  time, 
and  his  fears  of  imaginary  foes  and  the  shrieks  of  murdered 
women  and  children  ringing  in  his  ears  made  an  awful 
Nemesis  which  pursued  him  to  his  grave. 

Your  Father. 


—29— 


The  Walk  from  Council  Bluffs  to  Salt  Lake  G7\?. 

Utah,  March,  1907. 

My  dear  Boy  : 

In  the  spring  of  1859  a  company  of  men  and  women 
were  camped  at  Florence  Hill,  seven  miles  west  of  Omaha, 
Neb.  We  were  all  newly  made  Mormon  converts,  having 
just  arrived  from  Denmark  after  passing  through  perils  on 
the  sea  and  the  land.  We  were  divided  into  hundreds  and 
tens,  after  the  custom  of  the  Israelites,  and  a  man,  Rowley, 
was  my  captain.  We  had  been  instructed  to  build  small 
handcarts  after  a  special  design  given  to  Brigham  Young  by 
God.  We  were  assigned  two  men  to  a  cart  and  a  very  nice 
young  man  was  my  partner.  The  first  day's  journey  was  de- 
lightful, but  before  long  the  wdieels  broke  off.  It  seemed 
strange  that  these  carts,  specially  designed  by  the  Almighty 
and  warranted  by  Him  to  stand  the  journey,  should  wear  out 
so  soon.  Yet  it  did  not  occur  to  any  of  us  that  we  might  pos- 
sibly be  dupes.  In  a  few  weeks  I  was  utterly  worn  out  and 
finally  fell  to  tlie  ground,  unable  to  proceed  further.  My 
wife  hitched  herself  into  my  place,  and  with  a  strange  man 
toiled  day  after  day,  pulling  the  cart,  whiile  I  toiled  on  be- 
hind the  best  I  could.  Besides  pulling  at  the  cart  all  day, 
when  evening  came  she  had  to  prepare  food  for  eight  per- 
sons. She  was  but  a  girl,  a  bride  of  a  few  months,  taken 
from  the  ball-room,  as  it  were,  from  the  pleasures  of  girl- 
hood, and  had  given  up  all  to  go  wdth  me  into  Mormondom. 
All  was  disappointment  to  her,  and  her  life  was  being  filled 
with  hardships.  I  was  delirious  with  the  mountain  fever 
and  she  had  to  care  for  me.  Still  worse,  the  entire  company 
was  running  short  of  food.  There  was  nothing  left  but  a 
little  flour,  and  soon  that  was  gone.  But  we  must  move  on, 
on,  on.  Men  grew  weak  and  fell  in  their  tracks.  I  shall 
tiiever  forget  one  evening,  while  lying  in  the  tent,  that  the 
captain  said  to  my  wifes  father,  just  after  the  camp  had 

—  30  — 


been  hiiched:  -Your  wife  has  fallen  by  the  roadside  some 
distance  back."  My  wife  was  by  the  fire,  trying  to  prepare 
some  ox  soup,  and  I  could  see  what  an  awful  struggle  sihe 
was  having  to  stifle  the  tears.  Soon  her  father  returned, 
carrying  her  mother  on  his  back.  She  was  more  dead  than 
alive.  We  buried  her  next  morning  before  we  left  camp. 
We  had  left  Florence  Hill  with  a  few  ox  teams  to  draw 
heavier  loads,  but  they  had  died  one  by  one  and  we  were 
now  not  only  without  food,  but  we  had  double  loads  to 
draw.  Some  of  the  sick  and  worn  oxen  were  killed  and 
we  made  soup.  This  we  drank  with  a  relish  without  bread 
or  vegetables.  Naturally  the  entire  company  was  diseased. 
I  recall  one  morning  while  camping  near  a  stream  that 
we  discovered  some  berries  on  the  bushes.  As  we  were 
finding  relish  in  them,  the  cry  was  raised  that  a  relief  party 
from  Salt  Lake  was  in  sight.  I  will  never  forget  the  cries 
of  joy  that  rent  the  air,  the  prayers  offered  and  tears  of 
gladness  that  w^ere  shed.  The  poor  souls  fell  over  each 
other,  begging  and  crying  for  the  food.  I  was  able  to  move 
toward  the  wagons  by  the  aid  of  a  stick  in  my  right  hand. 
Some  fell  and  were  unable  to  rise.  Some  rolled  down  the 
hill  and  embankment.  It  seemed  an  age  before  we  could 
get  anything  out  of  the  wagons.  Flour  and  water  were 
stirred  together  and  poured  into  the  frying  pan,  and  as  soon 
as  it  was  hard  we  seized  and  ate.  I  have  never  tasted  any- 
thing so  delicious.  No  one  knows  what  it  is  to  sufTer  for 
food  until  he  has  tried  it.  If  a  man  gets  hungry  enough  he 
will  eat  anything  that  he  can  find.  I  remember  a  young 
mother  with  a  babe  that  was  often  trailing  far  behind.  I 
wondered  how  she  could  keep  up  her  strength  without  food. 
It  afterward  developed  that  she  picked  her  food  from  the 
carcasses  which  we  left  lying  along  the  trail.  There  was  a 
girl  in  her  teens  who  had  left  a  home  of  luxury  against  the 
will  of  her  parents  to  go  into  Mormondom  and  save  her  soul. 
Reared  in  luxury,  she  was  now  offering  her  gold  ring  for 

—  31  — 


a  meal  of  flour.  With  tears  in  her  eyes,  she  cried  pite- 
ously:  "I  am  so  hungry — so  hungry!"  The  provision  train 
brought  needed  reUef,  but  not  until  many  had  died.  How- 
ever, when  we  entered  Salt  Lake  there  was  plenty,  and  we 
who  had  survived  forgot  our  sufferings  and  took  joy  in  the 
fact  that  we  were  now  in  Zion  among  the  Lord's  anointed. 

I  am  now  an  old  man  and  have  had  many  years  to  live 
under  ^lormon  influence.  Joseph  Smith  and  Brigham 
Young  and  others  high  in  the  church  have  said  that  they 
have  as  much  right  to  organize  and  control  a  church  as  had 
the  Pope.  But  if  this  is  a  land  of  religious  freedom  and 
personal  liberty,  the  lawmakers  of  our  land  ought  to  see 
to  it  that  such  men  be  not  permitted  to  take  an  ignorant  lot 
of  people  out  on  the  plains  over  a  thousand  miles  from 
habitation  and  leave  them  without  food  or  relief.  The  situ- 
ation in  Utah  is  just  the  same  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  the 
beginning.  What  rigiht  has  Joseph  F.  Smith  to  keep  these 
many  thousands  of  people  in  ignorance  and  bondage  and 
collect  from  them  tithes  amounting  to  almost  two  millions 
per  annum,  and  using  that  sum  of  money  for  any  purpose 
desired  and  making  no  accounting  of  it  to  the  people  ?  And 
this  'he  does  under  the  special  command  of  God.  What  right 
has  Joseph  F.  Smith  to  maintain  a  harem  of  five  establish- 
ments in  Salt  Lake  City  and  bring  illegitimate  offsprings 
into  this  world?  And  this  he  pretends  to  do  under  the 
blasphemous  assumption  that  he  is  God's  anointed.  This 
hierarchy  has  fastened  itself  upon  the  superstition  and  ig- 
norance of  these  thousands  of  followers  and  the  govern- 
ment ought  to  see  to  it  that  coming  generations  shall  have  a 
right  to  the  privileges  which  accrue  to  them  because  they 
have  been  born  under  the  Stars  and  Strpies. 

Your  Father. 


—  32  — 


Early  Experience  in  Utah, 

Utah,  April,  1907. 
My  dkar  Boy  : 

It  was  quite  a  common  thing  when  I  first  came  to  Utalh 
for  a  woman  to  leave  her  husband  and  become  the  concu- 
bine of  a  man  wiho  was  higher  up  in  the  priesthood.  The 
more  priesthood  a  man  had,  so  much  ihigher  would  he  sit  in 
the  heavenly  seats.  I  have  known  many  such  instances.  In 
fact,  this  world  was  but  the  organization  for  the  coming  life, 
and  the  higher  a  man  stood  here  in  the  rites  of  the  church 
so  much  higher  would  he  stand  in  Heaven.  The  bonds  of 
matrimony  on  this  earth  were  not  sacred.  Children  were  of 
no  avail  except  that  each  one  counted  one  in  the  contest 
wherein  the  man  w^ho  had  produced  the  most  children  here 
on  this  earth  would  receive  the  prize  for  industry  in  Heaven. 
For  that  reason,  also,  if  a  man  had  but  two  wives  and  his 
neighbor  had  several,  these  wives  might  go  to  the  neigh- 
bor and  help  him  to  produce  children,  and  thus  get  glory 
when  the  final  decision  was  rendered.  But  with  my  wife 
and  myself  there  was  a  difference.  We  had  been  married 
on  the  sliip  'by  an  apostle  and  whatsoever  he  bound  on  earth 
was  bound  in  Heaven.  (Read  Smoot  has  that  power  now). 
In  our  ignorance  we  were  happy  in  this  belief,  and  it  is  well 
that  it  was  so,  for  could  I  have  looked  into  the  future  I 
should  not  have  been  here  to  tell  the  tale.  We  stood  together 
as  two  stray  sheep  upon  the  barren  hills  of  Utah,  looking 
forward  to  green  pastures,  but  our  lot  was  to  become  serfs 
to  a  band  of  cruel  and  blasphemous  friends  calling  them- 
selves the  special  servants  of  God. 

Next  morning  when  I  awoke  in  the  camping  yard,  most 
of  the  emigrants  had  already  gone ;  some  to  relatives,  others 
to  find  employment.  Near  our  bed  was  a  few  measures  of 
meal  and  a  squash  which  had  been  given  to  us  by  the  Saints 
when  w^e  came  into  the  city.  When  I  had  built  a  fire  and 

—  33  — 


had  put  the  frying  pan  on  to  fry  the  squash,  my  wife  sat  up 
from  under  our  one  ragged  quilt  and  said:  "Oh!  what  a 
headache  I  have."  She  looked  ill.  No  wonder.  She  had 
been  crying  most  of  the  night.  She  was  too  sick  to  move; 
otherwise  I  believe  she  would  have  gone  from  me  that  morn- 
ing, leaving  me  in  possession  of  our  quilt  and  scant  pro- 
visions never  to  return  again.  Just  then  her  father  came 
up  with  a  brother  ni  the  Gospel,  whose  acquaintance  he  had 
made.  Seeing  her  condition,  they  took  her  to  the  house  of 
a  widow  (?)  in  the  town,  and  spreading  the  blanket  on  a 
clumsy,  home-made  bedstead,  they  laid  her  on  it.  The  fol- 
lowing three  weeks  she  lay  near  death's  door,  suffering  and 
delirious.  When  the  fever  had  broken  she  had  practically 
forgotten  where  she  was  and  how  she  had  come.  She 
asked  about  her  mother  and  her  father.  She  had  forgotten 
that  her  mother  had  died  seven  weeks  before  on  the  plains. 
This  same  morning,  when  the  fever  had  broken,  a  brother 
came  in  and  suggested  that  the  Bishop  be  called  to  lay  hands 
on  her,  which,  of  course,  would  make  her  well  and  save  her 
life,  because  the  members  of  the  priesthood  had  power  to 
heal  disease  and  cast  out  devils.  It  did  not  occur  to  me  at 
the  time  that  the  Bishop  might  have  been  called  earlier  and 
administered  the  rights  when  she  was  very  low  and  was  not 
expected  to  live.  But  the  idea  that  a  Bishop  was  to  come 
made  me  excited.  Could  it  really  be  that  one  of  the  priest- 
hood was  to  visit  my  wife  and  lay  hands  on  her?  Surely 
she  would  soon  recover.  He  came — a  man  of  medium  size. 
His  trousers  of  homespun  were  bespattered  with  mud  and 
lime.  His  denim  shirt  was  torn  and  his  shoes  were  made 
from  untanned  cow-skin.  Could  this  man  be  a  great  Bishop? 
He  took  a  bottle  of  olive  oil  out  of  his  pocket.  He  poured 
his  palm  full  of  oil,  and,  smearing  it  over  the  sick  woman's 
head,  said :  "In  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  I  anoint  you." 
He  then  called  his  companion,  and  the  two,  laying  their 
hands  on  her  body,  the  Bishop  said:  "I  command  the  evil 

—  34  — 


spirits  herewith  to  leave  the  body  of  this  sister,  and  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  1  command  the  Devil  to  forever  depart  from 
this  house."  The  Bishop  then  prophesied  that  "from  this 
moment  the  woman  will  be  well.  She  shall  become  a  great 
mother  in  Israel  and  in  the  days  to  come  her  children  shall 
rise  up  and  call  her  blessed."  She  did  improve  from  that 
time,  of  course,  and  about  two  weeks  later  I  secured  em- 
ployment from  one  of  the  tw^elve  apostles,  Erastus  Snow. 
He  employed  me  for  a  bushel  of  wheat  per  day  and  my 
dinner.  And  such  a  dinner,  delicious,  and  so  much.  A  big 
piece  of  meat  was  put  on  my  plate,  but  I  did  not  dare  to 
touch  it  lest  it  was  put  there  just  to  try  me.  But  how  could 
it  be  that  these  of  the  priesthood  could  fare  so  sumptuously, 
w^hile  so  many  others  were  actually  starving?  We  had  been 
taught  in  Denmark,  before  embarking  for  America,  that  all 
the  Saints  lived  and  fared  alike. 

The  next  Sundav  I  went  to  the  Tabernacle  to  hear  Bri^- 
ham  Young  preach.  I  had  just  found  a  seat  \vhen  Apostle 
Kimbal,  Brigham's  right-hand  man,  came  in  and  took  his 
seat  on  the  platform,  and  immediately  Brigham  called  him  to 
say  a  few  words.  When  he  began  to  speak  the  people 
smiled,  and  then  shortly  they  burst  out  laughing,  all  but  one 
woman  who  blushed,  then  turned  pale,  got  up  and  went  out. 
Then  Kimball  said  something  more  as  she  disappeared  and 
the  congregation  laughed  again.  Being  a  foreigner,  I  could 
not  understand,  but  coming  out  of  the  building  I  met  one 
of  my  own  countrymen,  and,  walking  down  the  street,  he 
explained  to  me  what  had  been  said  in  the  Tabernacle: 
"You  noticed,"  he  said,  "that  Apostle  Kimball  came  in  late. 
When  Brigham  called  him  to  speak  he  stated  that  the  reason 
why  he  was  late  was  because  .  .  .  (here  the  language  of 
the  reason  given  by  the  Apostle  is  so  filthy  that  we  must 
omit  it,  as  it  is  unprintable)  .  .  .  Here  you  noticed  that 
the  people  laughed,  but  Kimball  said:  'Don't  be  mistaken. 
I  did  not  mean  to  'be  vulgar,  for  I  w^as  reared  by  a  dear 

—  35  — 


mother  who  was  as  fine  a  woman  as  ever  .  .  .  (here 
again  we  must  omit  the  words).  You  noticed  that  the  peo- 
ple all  laughed  but  one  lady,  who  was  insulted  and  went 
out.  When  he  saw  her  start  for  the  door,  he  said:  'I  came 
pretty  near  saying  .  .  .  (again  we  must  omit) ,  .  .  .but 
I  guess  I  won't."  The  'brother,  in  conversation,  said  that 
this  woman  who  went  out  was  not  a  Mormon  anyway. 

This  newly  found  countryman  proved  to  be  from  San 
Pete  County,  and  he  offered  to  take  my  wife  and  myself  to 
his  town,  where  he  thought  we  might  find  employment. 
With  our  ragged  quilts,  the  frying  pan  and  a  feather  bed 
Avhich  her  father  had  given  us,  our  sole  possessions,  we 
started  on  the  125-mile  journey  with  the  ox  team.  The  very 
first  night  that  we  camped  we  fell  in  with  a  man  who  was 
taking  two  women  to  the  Endowment  House,  where  they 
were  to  be  "sealed  to  him  for  time  and  eternity."  He  had 
his  wife  with  him,  a  woman  of  about  sixty.  The  one  woman 
to  whom  he  was  going  to  be  sealed  was  about  forty,  rosy- 
cheeked,  looking  well,  but  her  mouth  was  slightly  twisted 
to  one  side.  The  other  woman  was  about  thirty.  She  had 
been  a  dressmaker  in  Denmark,  was  crippled,  and  wore 
crutches.  As  we  sat  around  the  sage-brush  fire,  the  con- 
versation naturally  turned  tow^ard  the  principles  of  polyg- 
amy. "It  is  this  way,"  said  the  man.  ''Jesus  in  a  parable 
said.  Tn  that  day  it  will  be  as  a  man  going  into  a  far  coun- 
try.' He  called  his  servants  and  said  unto  them,  To  you  I 
will  give  five  talents,'  meaning  five  wives ;  to  the  other  he 
gave  two,  and  to  the  other  one.  When  the  Lord  returned 
he  found  that  the  servant  to  whom  he  had  given  five  wives 
had  increased  by  rearing  many  children.  The  second  servant 
had  also  reared  as  many  children  as  possible  with  his  two 
wives,  but  the  man  with  one  wife  had  been  unfortunate. 
Then  the  Lord  will  take  the  one  wife  from  the  one  man  and 
give  her  to  the  one  that  has  five,  and  wlho  has  increased  his 
talents,  and  will  say  to  him,  'Well  done  thou  good  and  faith- 

-36- 


fill  servant;  take  thou  this  other  man's  wife.  Thou  hast 
been  dihgent  with  a  few  wives.  I  shall  make  thee  lord  over 
many.'  But  the  one  man  who  had  a  wife  but  did  not  in- 
crease his  talents  shall  never  be  permitted  to  enter  into  the 
joy  of  the  Lord.  I  know  this  is  true,  because  the  Prophet, 
Joseph  Smith,  told  us  thes-e  things,  and  he  said  that  the  chil- 
dren were  the  inheritance  of  the  Lord." 

I  felt  very  much  built  up  in  the  holy  faith  after  this  con- 
versation, and  turning,  looked  at  my  wife,  but  she  seemed 
dissatisfied. 

During  our  journey  to  San  Pete  County,  this  newly  found 
friend  told  me  of  his  early  experiences.  He  had  been  a  tailor 
in  a  large  city  in  Denmark.  He  had  come  to  Utah  just  be- 
fore Johnston  was  ordered  to  march  here  with  his  regi- 
ment.' He  had  been  sent  with  others  to  oppose  Johnston's 
entrance  to  Salt  Lake  Valley.  He  had  never  been  on  a 
horse  before,  but  he  was  placed  on  an  old  mule  with  an  old 
saddle  and  was  given  a  gun.  He  could  not  guide  the  mule 
and  he  sat  on  its  back,  bunched  up,  while  the  other  boys 
drove  it.  All  he  could  do  was  to  cling  to  the  saddle  or  fall 
off.  How  the  poor  fellow  suffered.  Stiff  and  sore  and 
miserable.  They  assembled  in  the  pass  at  Echo  Canon,  but 
he  did  not  think  that  much  was  accomplished,  as  Johnston 
did  not  try  to  get  in.  In  fa<3t,  the  Mormons  had  succeeded 
in  driving  away  his  mules  and  oxen  and  burning  his  supply 
trains.  Brigham  Young  had  prophesied  that  in  the  name  of 
the  Holy  Priesthood  the  soldiers  would  never  be  able  to  enter 
Salt  Lake  City.  Kimball  prophesied  also  that  if  any  of 
them  did  come  they  would  each  be  killed  as  one  man  if  the 
Lord  should  chase  ten  of  the  enemy  and  ten  should  chase  a 
thousand.  Kimball  cried  out  in  the  Tabernacle  that  the 
blood  of  the  enemy  of  God  should  yet  run  through  the 
streets.  But  when  the  army  did  come  the  next  year,  my 
friend  .•-aid  that  the  Lord  bad  directed  Brigham  Young  to 
take  his  people  and  go  southward  for  a  journey,  as  the  sol- 

—  y?  — 


diers  were  going  to  burn  Salt  Lake  City.  But  when  the 
soldiers  marched  peacefully  through  the  valley  and  camped 
on  the  'banks  of  the  Jordan  River,  Brigiham  returned  to  Salt 
Lake  City  and  announced  that  he  had  done  that  just  to  try 
the  Saints.  He  said  that  the  Lord  had  purposely  sent  the 
Gentiles  to  Utah  with  tools  and  implements  to  be  dropped  at 
the  feet  of  the  Saints  for  a  little  flour  and  hay  and  straw.  But 
the  Lord  also  commanded  that  no  one  could  deal  with  the 
soldiers  but  Brigham  Young.  But  some  of  the  brethren 
traded  with  the  soldiers  on  their  own  account  and  came  very 
near  ''going  to  hell  and  losing  their  souls"  because  of  it. 
And  so  it  developed  that  the  Lord  had  sent  the  army,  not  to 
destroy  the  Saints,  but  to  supply  them  with  the  necessities 
for  everyday  pursuits. 

But  to  my  great  surprise  and  disappointment,  my  friend 
was  in  doubt  whether  Brigham  could  know  the  plans  o;  the 
Lord  ;  at  least,  he  never  did  tell  anything  until  it  was  all 
over  and  done. 

When  we  arrived  in  San  Pete  County  we  were  taken  into 
a  family  of  five,  and  we  all  lived  in  a  log  room  measuring 
seven  feet  by  twelve. 

Your  Father. 


-38- 


More  Experience  in  Utah. 

Utah,  May,  1907. 
!My  dear  Boy  : 

My  wife  and  I  lived  with  this  family  of  which  I  told  you 
in  my  former  letter,  for  about  three  weeks.  She  helped  with 
the  routine  house  duties  and  I  worked  about  the  farm.  They 
fed  us  on  potatoes  and  biscuits,  the  best  they  had.  It  seemed 
impossible  for  me  to  get  enough  to  eat,  so  great  was  my 
hunger  after  my  fever  while  crossing  the  plains.  I  would 
eat  until  there  was  no  more  in  sight  and  would  feel  ashamed 
of  myself.  Shortly  after  this,  one  Sunday  morning  I  broke 
a  walking  stick  from  among  a  bunch  of  willows,  and,  taking 
my  coat  under  my  arm,  started  toward  the  west.  At  even- 
ning  I  arrived  at  a  settlement  and  found  there  a  relative  of 
my  wife's  who  had  been  in  Utah  almost  two  years. 

Here  was  more  to  eat.  I  sent  for  my  wife  and  she  hired 
out  for  a  bushel  of  wheat  per  week,  and  at  the  end  of  four 
weeks  she  was  to  have  a  chicken  in  with  the  bargain. 

This  relative  of  my  wife's  told  me  many  things  that  had 
happened  the  year  before  in  their  town.  He  showed  me  the 
log  "meeting-house,"  where  a  certain  young  man  had  been 
ruined.  The  elders  of  the  church  had  ordered  him  to  come 
to  the  meeting-house  with  others,  and  when  he  was  inside 
a  blanket  was  thrown  over  his  head, — a  high  Mormon 
official  himself  used  the  knife.  The  young  man  was  left 
bleeding  profusely,  and  from  that  day  until  his  death,  many 
years  afterward,  he  was  "luny"  and  was  running  around  the 
country  a  harmless  fool.  I  saw  also  the  place  between  two 
settlements  where  one  cold  winter's  evening  a  man  had  been 
dragged  from  his  wagon,  had  inflicted  upon  him  the  grossest 
indecency  with  awful  pain,  and  left  in  the  snow.  He  dragged 
himself  to  the  town  on  hands  and  knees  and  the  trail  of  the 
blood  showed  all  the  way.  These  things  were  done  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  and  we  thought  they  were  all  right,  be- 
cause the  priesthood  said  they  were.     These  were  days  of 

—  39  — 


reformation.  Some  were  treated  this  way  by  the  leaders 
for  vengeance,  but  this  cruelty  was  inflicted  upon  others 
because  they  were  small  men.  It  was  the  purpose  of  the 
church  to  have  only  large  Vnd  strong  men  in  Zion.  The 
women  were  fostered,  but  the  small  men  were — (we  cannot 
print  the  indecency  inflicted) — and  the  result  was  they 
usually  became  weak-minded  or  complete  idiots. 

There  were  very  few  skeptics  or  apostates,  and  these  few 
did  not  let  it  be  known,  because  Brigham  Young  had  said 
that  he  would  not  be  treated  as  had  been  Joseph  Smith,  and 
he  decreed  that  apostates  should  not  flourish  in  Utah  even 
if  he  should  unsheath  his  bowie  knife  and  put  them  all  to 
death. 

They  told  us  wonderful  tales  of  the  superhuman  power 
of  the  elders.  It  always  seemed  strange  to  me  that  I  could 
never  witness  any  of  these  miraculous  deeds.  An  old  woman 
with  whom  I  had  become  acquainted  and  who  had  crossed 
the  plains  before  I  had  come,  told  me  that  during  the  journey 
one  of  the  oxen  had  fallen  sick  and  could  not  rise.  The 
elders  came  together,  laid  hands  on  it,  prayed,  and  the  ox 
then  rose  and  walked.  She  told  me  of  a  man  who  had 
broken  his  back.  The  elders  laid  hands  on  him  and  prayed. 
The  bones  began  to  crack  so  loudly  that  they  could  be  heard 
over  much  of  the  camp;  the  back  was  made  well,  the  man 
arose,  and  went  to  his  dinner.  When  I  looked  as  though  I 
hardly  believed  these  tales,  she  upbraided  me  and  said: 
"Don't  you  know  that  Joseph  Smith  once  upon  a  time  called 
a  certain  man  to  help  him  do  his  work,  and  the  man  being 
a  farmer,  in  the  field  busy  with  the  plow — that  the  Lord  sent 
an  ?  angel  to  plow  the  land  while  the  man  was  away  with 
Joseph  Smith?" 

She  then  told  me  that  her  husband  had  been  to  England 
as  a  missionary  and  had  brought  back  a  young  woman  with 
him  who  had  become  his  second  wife.  She  said :  "Oh !  no 
woman  can  ever  know  what  I  have  suffered  since.  Night 
after  night  I  have  lain  on  my  lonely  bed,  alone  and  com- 

—  40  — 


fortless.  I  have  walked  the  floor  for  hours,  and  have  walked 
to  and  fro  through  the  night  between  my  cabin  and  the 
cabin  where  he  always  stays  with  his  other  wife."  Years 
afterward  she  said  to  me :  ''Thank  God !  I  am  all  over  it  now. 
I  do  no  care  for  anything  now.  I  am  not  a  woman — only  a 
stone."  She  broke  down  and  cried,  and  I  left  the  house 
with  doubts  as  to  the  hardness  of  such  a  life  because  I  had 
not  yet  been  tried  by  the  curse  of  polygamy. 

This  woman's  husband  was  made  a  Bishop,  but  he  was 
not  successful  in  demanding  tithes  and  money  from  the 
people,  so  he  was  made  a  patriarch.  He  had  the  power  to 
bestow  blessings  upon  all  those  who  could  pay  for  them. 
He  usually  charged  a  bushel  of  wheat  per  blessing. 

Your  Father. 


—  41  — 


A  Mormon  Family. 

Utah,  June,  1907. 

yiY  DEAR  Boy: 

I  once  knew  an  .old  Mormon  who  had  come  from  Nauvoo 
with  Brigham  Young,  after  Joseph  Smith  had  been  shot. 
He  was  called  an  "Eider  in  Israel."  He  had  several  sons, 
and  I  want  to  tell  you  first  about  one  of  them,  whom  we  will 
call  No.  3.  He  is  dead  now.  He  left  a  wife,  who  is  75 
years  old,  and  she  looks  better  and  happier  to-day  than  she 
did  years  ago,  because  she  says  now  she  is  free.  She  no 
longer  lives  in  terror  lest  her  drunken  and  domineering  hus- 
])and  should  come  home  and  knock  her  about.  His  wife 
Xo.  2  is  also  living.  She  walks  along  the  way,  bent,  looking 
absent-minded,  but  yet  thinking  of  days  gone  by  when  she 
might  have  lived  a  happy  and  pleasant  life  had  it  not  been 
for  the  curse  of  polygamy.  On  one  occasion  he  ordered 
this  wife  No.  2  to  move  out  of  her  dug-out  and  go  and  live 
with  wife  No.  i  in  a  log  cabin.  But  her  woman's  intuition 
told  her  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  two  women  to 
Hve  togeither.  Her  husband  became  so  enraged  at  this  re- 
fusal that  he  carried  straw  into  the  dug-out  and  strew  it 
about  the  room  and  bedding  and  was  on  the  point  of  setting 
fire  to  it  to  burn  her  out,  and  would  have  done  so,  had  not 
one  of  her  sons  rushed  at  his  father  with  an  axe  and  driven 
him  away. 

His  third  wife  is  dead  now.  She  was  a  pretty,  innocent 
girl,  in  her  teens,  when  she  became  his  wife.  She  had  left 
an  ardent  lover  and  married  into  polygamy  because  she 
thought  she  was  doing  the  will  of  God.  She  had  never 
forgotten  her  first  love,  and  her  husband  knew  it  and  chafed 
under  it.  One  day  he  invited  her  to  go  riding  with  him  and 
he  took  her  on  a  hay-rake.  When  they  came  to  a  ditch 
full  of  water  he  seized  her,  new  hat  and  all,  and  threw  her 
into  the  ditch.  She  died  shortly  afterward  from  the  ex- 
posure and  her  death  scene  was  one  of  pity,  cursing  polyg- 
amy, and  she  died  without  a  glimmer  of  hope. 

—  42  — 


43  — 


Tliis  man  had  a  goodly  number  of  children  by  his  other 
wives.  One  of  them,  a  married  man,  some  time  ago  was 
sent  to  the  insane  aslyum.  His  wife,  by  hard  and  constant 
work,  has  supported  their  children.  Her  one  hope  is  to  get 
away  from  the  county  and  secure  a  divorce  before  her 
brutish  husband  shall  again  be  permitted  to  return  to  her. 

His  other  sons  are  drunkards  for  the  most  part  and  are 
constantly  fighting.  K  they  cannot  find  a  common  foe,  they 
fight  each  other.  On  one  occasion  two  of  them  (half-broth- 
ers) were  fighting  over  a  saddle  and  the  one  had  almost 
succeeded  in  killing  the  other  when  neighbors,  having  been 
suimmoned  by  the  screaming  mother,  came  to  her  rescue. 

One  of  his  daughters,  the  mother  of  several  children,  and 
whose  husband  died  two  or  three  years  ago,  has  just  become- 
a  mother  again  and  the  father  of  the  child  is  a  married  man. 
Poor  woman,  she  said  to  me :  "Oh,  if  I  could  only  have  com- 
mitted suicide  before  the  child  was  born !  But  I  could  not 
leave  my  fatherless  children  without  care  or  protection.  But 
I  may  have  to  kill  m}-self  yet,  for  I  have  not  a  friend  in  the 
world." 

This  son  No.  3,  the  father  of  these  twelve  polygamous 
children,  had  always  kepit  out  of  the  penitentiary,  although 
he  was  a  murderer.  He  had  killed  an  Indian  once,  who  had 
been  converted  to  the  Mormon  Church  for  his  own  protec- 
tion, because  he  had  been  assured  that  Mormons  would  never 
kill  Indians  who  were  Mormons.  This  was  in  the  days  when 
the  Danites  were  flourishing  in  Utah.  This  Indian  had  lived 
peaceably  among  ihis  white  brothers  for  years ;  but  in  his 
innocence  he  had  to  die  to  satisfy  the  passion  of  a  brutish, 
vulgar  polygamist. 

But  another  son,  the  brother  of  No.  3  (we  will  call  him 
No.  2)  had  also  married  two  wives,  and  afterward  a  widow. 
But  the  latter  knew  how  to  handle  him.  No  doubt  that 
might  be  attributed  to  her  earlier  experience.  He  had  to 
come  and  go  as  she  said  and  he  did  not  often  have  opportuni- 
ties to  visit  his  first  two  wives.  The  third  wife  could  not 
allow  it.    Tliey  lived  each  in  a  log  cabin  some  distance  away,. 

—  44  — 


and  it  was  said  that  he  furnished  only  their  flour  and  wood, 
but  their  half-grown  boys  always  followed  their  father  into 
the  field  with  hoes  and  shovels  and  worked  on  the  farm. 
They  were  a  tough  set.  I  saw  one  of  them  one  day  walk 
along  the  sidewalk  and  with  a  sharp  hatchet  cut  down  a  long 
row  of  young  shade-trees.  All  (the  neighbors  were  afraid 
of  these  boys,  for  such  a  tough  crowd  could  rule  the  whole 
neighborhood  during  those  early  days.  I  have  seen  these 
boys  on  the  street  half  dressed  and  barefooted  in  the  coldest 
winter  days,  with  half  frozen  feet,  but  they  were  always 
fighting  and  stealing. 

But  the  son  No.  2  was  not  as  shrewd  as  his  brother  He 
jonld  readily  steal  calves  and  chickens,  and  consequently  his 
family  suffered.  By  and  by  his  first  wife  became  insane. 
She  had  come  from  a  fine  family,  but  now  in  a  strange  land, 
hungry  and  cold,  and  suffering  from  disappointment  in 
polygam}-  and  Mormonism,  she  naturally  lost  her  mind. 
One  day  I  saw  two  of  her  sons  fighting  like  roosters.  Their 
old  father  could  not  separate  them  and  the  neighbors  were 
finally  called  in  to  pull  them  apart. 

One  of  these  boys  married  a  young  girl  and  then  did  not 
support  her.  He  said  he  had  as  much  right  to  starve  a 
woman  as  anybody. 

But  the  "old  man,"  as  bis  sons  called  him, — the  last  I 
saw  of  him  he  w^as  w^andering  over  the  country  without  a 
home,  carrying  an  old  coat  under  his  arm. 

But  there  was  still  another  son  of  this  original  ''Elder 
in  Israel."  We  will  call  him  No.  i.  When  I  first  met  him 
I  could  tell  by  bis  old  but  substantial-looking  trousers  that 
he  had  seen  better  days.  He  was  also  a  polygamist, — mar- 
ried two  sisters;  but  he  was  past  the  prime  of  Hfe,  and  as 
he  grew^  older  his  family  grew  larger.  But  he  was  a  good- 
looking  man,  had  small  feet  and  a  large  head.  He  was  al- 
ways ready  to  stand  up  for  the  other  fellow,  but  during  the 
eight  or  nine  years  in  which  I  knew  him  he  had  but  one 
fight.    At  that  time  he  hit  a  brother  in  the  church  over  the 

—  45  — 


head  with  a  hoe,  breaking  the  handle.  I  saw  the  brother 
washing  the  blood  from  liis  face  at  the  ditch  shortly  after- 
ward and  he  took  it  quite  cool.  No  doubt  the  man  assault- 
ing was  reprimanded  by  the  Bishop  for  his  unbrotherly 
act, — tliat  is,  since  he  was  a  poor  man. 

One  of  this  man's  sons  committed  suicide  and  one  of 
his  daughters  was  sent  to  the  insane  asylum.  She  was  the 
mother  of  a  large  family. 

All  these  misfortunes  and  bad  characteristics  could  be 
traced  directly  back  to  the  old  grandfather,  the  "Elder  in 
Israel." 

But  the  children  of  the  son  No.  i,  whose  mothers  were 
sisters,  were  of  a  different  character.  These  sisters  had 
come  from  an  old  Christian  home.  They  were  religious  and 
taught  their  children  to  fear  God,  pray  for  Brigham  Young 
and  pay  their  tithing.  This  just  shows  that  a  polygamist 
mother  can  have  some  influence  over  her  children. 

This  old  "Elder  in  Israel"  was  a  thief,  liar  and  a  hypo- 
crite of  the  worst  stripe.  His  children  inherited  his  wick- 
edness. He  had  no  faith  and  was  a  Mormon  simply  because 
he  was  then  privileged  to  have  all  the  wives  he  wanted,  ana 
he  was  supported  and  taken  care  of  by  the  church.  He  was 
given  an  office,  too.  The  facts  were  that  he  knew  too  much 
about  Brigham  Young  and  the  Danites  when  the  United 
States  was  investigating  in  Utah,  and  to  protect  himself, 
Brigham  Young  was  compelled  to  make  him  his  bed-fellow 
and  support  him. 

Your  Father. 


-46- 


A  Sad  Tale. 

Utah,  July,  1907. 

My  dear  Boys  :  r  .  n 

A  few  years  ago  I  attended  a  funeral.  Let  me  tell  you 
■he  story  of  the  old  man's  life.  Thank  God!  one  more 
comrade  has   gone  beyond  the  influence  of  the   Mormon 

:urse. 

In  the  month  of  October,  1899,  a  starving  old  man  came 
10  me,  pleading  for  something  to  eat.  I  could  hardly  believe 
my  eyes.  Just  thirty-nine  years  before  this  same  man  had 
been  a  guest  at  my  home  in  Central  Utah.  He  was  at  that 
time  on  his  way  to  the  Endowment  House  in  Salt  Lake  City 
with  his  wife,  her  baby  and  the  hired  girl,  where  he  intended 
to  make  the  latter  his  plural  wife.  On  the  morrow  his  wife 
expressed  a  desire  to  remain  at  my  home  until  her  husband 
and  his  newly-acquired  wife  should  return  from  Salt  Lake 
City.  As  soon  as  they  were  on  their  way  and  out  of  hearing, 
the  mother,  with  her  babe  held  closely  to  her  breast,  came 
rushing  into  the  house,  flung  herself  on  the  floor,  and  cried : 
"Now  they  have  gone.  My  God,  my  God,  how  can  I  bear  it ! 
I  would  rather  see  him  in  his  grave  than  go  off  with  that 
womm."  With  frightened  excitement  the  little  babe  held 
closely  to  its  mother's  neck  while  she  sobbed :  "If  it  was  not 
for  this  little  thing,  I  could  drown  myself.  But  how  can  T 
destroy  my  child?"  We  tried  to  comfort  her  by  saying  that 
her  husband  was  only  obeying  the  law  which  the  Lord  had 
given  to  Joseph  Smith,  the  prophet,  and  that  her  husband 
was  a  good  man  in  that  he  was  obeying  the  commands  of 
God  in  taking  another  wife.  The  wretched  woman,  having 
calmed  herself  somewhat,  but  still  sitting  on  the  floor  with 
her  child,  continued:  "Oh!  If  I  had  only  done  it!  But  I 
could  not.  How  many  nights  I  have  wandered  on  the  banks 
of  the  creek  near  our  home,  intending  to  throw  my  child 
into  the  water  and  then  drown  myself;  but  I  could  not.    I 

—  47  — 


vv 


as  afraid  that  I  might  strangle  my  baby  and  then  not  have 
the  courage  to  take  my  own  life.  And  then  I  would  think  of 
my  husband  sitting  in  the  kitchen  with  the  hired  girl,  and 
make  a  new  resolve  to  end  my  life,  but  the  roaring  of  the 
cold  water  would  frighten  me  away.  Going  to  the  house,  I 
would  find  them  sitting  together  in  the  dark  kitchen,  he 
lavishing  all  of  his  affections  upon  her,  with  never  a  kind 
word  for  me.  Sometimes  I  would  speak  sharply  to  them, 
and  then  again  softly,  almost  always  weeping,  but  he  never 
loves  me,  nor  does  he  speak  a  kind  word  to  me.  It  is  always 
the  same  cruel  rebuke  of  'you  are  an  apostate,  a  devil,  you 
do  not  love  the  Lord,  nor  will  you  heed  his  commands.'  " 

Ten  years  after  the  above  events  he  was  sent  on  a  mis- 
sion to  Europe.  Returning  in  two  years,  he  brought  back  a 
beautiful,  innocent  Danish  girl  just  in  her  teens.  They  were 
married  in  the  temple  before  going  to  his  southern  home. 
In  the  meantime,  his  first  wife  had  gone  to  make  her  home 
with  a  grown  son.  When  he  arrived  home  with  his  new 
bride,  his  second  wife  refused  her  admittance.  She  in  turn 
was  beginning  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  Mormon  curse.  He 
also  realized  within  the  next  few  years  that  to  live  the  Mor- 
mon religion  required  an  abundance  of  natural  grace.  On 
one  occasion  when  he  was  leaving  the  dwelling  of  his  second 
wife  she  followed  him  to  the  river's  bank,  pushed  him  into 
the  deep  water,  and  then,  when  he  had  reached  safety  and 
had  gone  to  his  third  wife,  the  second  still  followed  and 
threw  stones  at  them  through  the  window.  The  poor  young 
and  inexperienced  girl  was  overcome  with  fright.  She  had 
been  taught  by  the  Mormon  missionaries  that  Zion  was  a 
land  of  love,  peace  and  plenty.  It  was  a  sad  awakening  for 
lier.  Although  she  had  just  become  a  mother,  she  decided 
quickly,  and  that  night  went  out  from  that  roof  never  to  re- 
turn. 

And  now  it  is  forty  years  since  first  I  saw  the  man.  The 
last  of  his  property  has  been  deckled  to  his  second  wife.    He 


4b 


is  penniless.  His  second  wife,  now  the  legal  one,  will  not 
recognize  him  or  even  permit  him  to  be  at  the  home  that  had 
once  been  his  own. 

Can  this  old  man  sitting  before  me  now  be  that  same 
young  man,  who,  forty-five  years  before,  in  the  bloom  of 
his  youth  and  so  joyfully  taking  the  young  girl  to  the  temple 
to  obey  what  he  believed  to  be  the  command  of  God  to 
Joseph  Smith :  "My  people  shall  enter  into  polygamy  and  a 
man  shall  have  more  than  one  wife  or  be  damned"  ?  Now 
he  is  lame,  with  a  sore  whidi  never  healed.  He  wanders 
from  place  to  place,  now  toward  his  home — but  he  cannot 
go  there,  not  even  for  a  mouthful  of  food.  His  oldest  so* 
will  not  receive  him,  and  his  daughter  with  a  home  of  her 
own  will  not  grant  him  admittance.  Such  are  the  fruits  of 
polygamy.  Attempts  to  visit  any  of  his  wives  or  children 
are  met  with  rebuke  and  rebuff,  and  so  he  wanders,  a  starv- 
ing, broken-down,  sad  old  man,  and  all  this  because  he  has 
tried  to  live  his  religion. 

The  last  time  I  saw  him  he  was  coming  to  my  home  with 
a  freighter  who  had  permitted  him  to  ride  in  his  wagon. 
In  our  last  conversation  I  reminded  him  of  his  wife  and 
children,  but  he  said :'  "No,  my  folks  do  not  care  for  me." 
His  wife  had  a  tale  to  tell  just  as  pitiable.  He  would  steal 
into  the  kitchen  at  night,  eat  what  he  could  find,  and  then  go 
away  before  daylight.  One  morning,  however,  when  his 
wife  came  into  the  kitchen  she  found  him  with  a  rope 
around  his  neck  hanging  to  a  rafter,  cold  and  dead. 

Your  Father. 


49  — 


''The  Order  of  Enochr 

Utah,  August,  1907. 
My  dear  Boy  : 

Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  "Order  of  Enoch"?  It  was 
decreed  by  Brigham  Young  one  day  that  the  ''Saints  should 
have  all  things  in  common."  In  the  town  where  I  lived  we 
had  not  only  provisions  and  store-houses  in  common,  but  all 
ate  at  the  same  table.  On  one  occasion  Erastus  Snow,  one 
of  the  twelve  apostles,  objected,  and  said  it  was  no  more 
necessary  for  all  to  eat  at  the  same  table  than  to  sleep  in  one 
bed.  The  grumblers  became  so  numrous  that  in  1875 
Brigham  Young  calld  a  halt ;  and  thus  the  Lord  had  made 
another  mistake. 

With  me,  the  "Order  of  Enoch"  had  become  an  important 
factor.  We  had  been  taught  (and  I  believed)  that  through 
th^s  means  we  would  all  be  taken  up  into  Heaven.  Thus  it 
was  that  I  began  to  doubt  and  wished  that  I  could  leave  the 
church  with  a  clear  conscience.  Several  years  after  this  I 
was  "cut  oi¥"  from  the  church  because  I  had  said  that  the 
twelve  apostles  were  not  the  apostles  of  God ;  that  there  was 
no  power  in  the  name  itself ;  that  we  might  as  well  call  them 
twelve  shoemakers  or  any  other  old  thing.  Not  satisfied 
with  the  following  I  had  in  my  own  town,  I  went  to  other 
settlements  and  preached  the  gospel  of  apostacy.  My  fol- 
lowers were  abused  and  called  crazy,  but  we  were  a  sincere 
and  peaceable  company.  Our  contention  was  that  self- 
preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  and  without  it  nothing 
can  live. 

It  can  easily  be  seen  that  when  the  "Order  of  Enoch"  was 
broken  up  and  the  property  divided,  there  was  but  little 
for  each  man.  This  had  simply  been  a  scheme  on  the  part 
of  Brigham  to  get  the  church  brand  on  our  cattle  and  our 
stores  into  his  barn. 

When  I  came  to  Utah  years  before,  I  came  because  T 
m^ant  it;  I  was  sincere;  I  had  believed  all  that  had  been 

—  SO  — 


taught.  It  grieved  me  that  the  "all-things-common"  idea 
was  given  up.  For  that  was  my  faith;  it  was  'built  on  the 
principle  contained  in  the  Bible  where  we  read  that  in  the 
days  of  the  Apostles  of  Christ  the  saints  should  live  together 
and  have  all  things  in  common.  It  has  been  my  position  to 
deal  out  provisions  and  wearing  apparel  during  the  "order." 
I  had  seen  the ^  wants  of  poor  families  when  there  had  not 
been  anything  to  give  them. 

I  began  to  study  the  Gospel  for  myself,  and  when  I  think 
of  the  visions  and  the  dreams  which  I  had  experienced,  let 
me  warn  all  religiously  inclined  people  to  beware :  Religion 
is  all  imagination  for  me  to-day.  Yet  it  is  just  as  natural 
for  a  man  to  seek  fame  through  a  corrupt  religion  as  it  is 
for  a  man  to  grow  rich  through  licensed  dishonesty. 

The  ]\Iormon  Church  claims  to  be  the  only  true  church  on 
the  earth.  But  we  have  yet  to  find  the  first  church  or  gov- 
ernment that  has  remained  true  to  its  first  principle.  When 
John  the  Baptist  was  preaching  in  the  wilderness  he  said : 
''Repent  ye,  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand."  And 
when  the  people  asked:  "What  shall  we  do?"  he  answered: 
"He  that  hath  two  coats,  let  him  impart  to  him  that  hath 
none;  and  he  that  hath  meat,  let  him  do  likewise."  When 
Christ  began  to  preach  He  told  the  people  the  same  story, 
for  He  admonished  them  not  to  turn  away  him  that  asketh, 
nor  him  that  wisheth  to  borrow.  And  so  it  was  that  the 
saints  and  the  apostles  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
only  way  in  which  you  could  do  unto  others  as  you  would 
have  others  do  unto  you  was  to  have  all  things  in  common. 

But  the  world  has  declared  that  it  cannot  be,  and  so  we 
stand  helpless  until  we  are  willing  to  be  led.  For  what  god 
is  there  that  can  force  a  people  into  happiness  against  their 
will?  If  you  hate  one  another,  you  will  have  sorrow,  but  if 
you  love  one  another  you  will  have  joy.  Let  the  church  and 
the  nation  learn  this  lesson,  that  to  live  and  let  live,  to  love 
and  let  love,  are  the  only  means  through  which  there  can  be 
had  happiness  and  salvation. 

—  51  — 


The  Mormon  priesthood  has  failed  to  lift  the  heavy  mill- 
stone from  the  heart  of  the  inner  soul.  Salvation  does  not 
come  through  the  priests  or  false  prophets,  but  by  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  this  ye  shall  know  and  be  known  if 
ye  love  one  anotlier. 

One  day  when  I  had  spoken,  some  people  came  forward 
to  encourage  me  on  the  stand  I  had  taken,  and  one  woman 
told  me  the  following  story :  "T  do  not  care  now,  for  you 
have  opened  my  eyes.  1  know  now  what  polygamy  means 
and  I  won't  be  afraid  of  my  husband  any  more.  You  know, 
my  first  husband  was  almost  a  crank  on  polygamy,  but  other- 
wise he  was  good  enough.  But  I  could  not  stand  his  other 
wife  and  so  I  left  him.  When  he  married  me  the  first  wife 
left  him ;  m  fact,  she  had  to,  because  he  did  not  care  for  her 
any  more.  You  should  have  seen  how  he  treated  her  as  we 
were  coming  home  from  Salt  Lake,  where  we  had  been  mar- 
ried in  tlie  temple.  One  day  when  she  had  been  walking 
for  a  distance  and  wanted  to  get  into  the  wagon,  he  would 
not  stop.  She  screamed  and  held  to  the  wagon,  but  our  hus- 
band drove  all  the  faster.  I  cried  out :  'If  you  don't  stop, 
I'll  jump  out!'  He  told  me  afterwards  that  she  was  crazy, 
but  who  wouldn't  be  crazy  in  her  place?  She  finally  had  to 
leave  him,  but  she  got  the  property,  for  she  was  his  first 
and  legal  wife  and  had  never  been  divorced.  The  first  wife 
and  our  husband  had  been  born  and  brought  up  as  children 
in  northern  Europe.  Their  parents  having  died  when  they 
were  small,  they  were  taken  and  brought  up  as  brother  and 
sister  in  the  same  family  and  were  deeply  attached  to  each 
other.  They  wandered  together  many  a  moonlit  night  talk- 
ing of  future  plans  and  happiness.  They  were  married  and 
came  to  Utah,  but  polygamy  ruined  their  happiness.  He 
began  to  follow  the  girls  about.  But  what  could  be  done? 
It  was  not  only  allowed,  but  also  commanded.  One  evening 
while  going  home  from  a  party  he  actually  left  her  standing 
in  the  street  while  he  followed  a  girl  going  in  another  direc- 
tion. *T  cried  loudly  aflter  him,'  she  said,  'and  bad  it  not  been 

—  H  — 


for  the  little  child  which  I  carried  in  my  arms  I  should  have 
jumped  into  the  near-by  creek.  He  came  back  and  took  me 
home,  then  turned  and  went  away,  I  knew  not  where,  and 
did  not  return  until  late  at  night." 

But  while  the  woman  was  talking,  some  one  called  her 
and  she  left.  And  as  I  was  thinking  over  what  she  had 
said,  I  called  to  mind  the  many  times  I  had  been  in  court 
and  had  heard  plural  wives  falsify  in  order  to  protect  these 
polygamous  husbands.  I  have  seen  older  men  wander  aAvay 
from  home  after  having  raised  a  polygamous  family,  but 
the  women  usually  stay  to  the  end  and  seldom  commit  sui- 
cide or  go  crazy.  I  know  of  but  one  instance  only  where 
one  w^oman  cut  another's  throat,  although  they  often 
threaten  to  poison  and  kill  each  other.  A  woman  in  polyg- 
amy may  act  desperately,  hang  or  drown  herself,  but  on  the 
witness  stand  she  will  defend  her  husband,  and  in  testimony 
meeting  she  will  declare  that  she  knows  that  polygamy 
comes  from  God;  that  it  is  the  happiest  life,  and  that  she 
would  live  in  no  other  way.  She  believes  that  her  polyga- 
mous ihusband  is  a  god  and  a  king.  Then  she  will  go  home 
with  a  heavy  heart,  crying,  scolding,  screaming  and  threaten- 
ing to  run  away.  But  by  and  by  she  realizes  her  position ; 
her  husband  will  be  a  god  and  king ;  she  will  be  a  queen,  and 
will  rule  nations  and  worlds  forever. 

Your  Father. 


—  53  — 


Why  I  Left  the  Mormon  Church. 

Utah,  September,  1907. 

]\Iy  dear  Boy  : 

Do  not  be  disturbed  about  the  rumors  in  regard  to  my 
actions  when  breaking  away  from  the  Mormon  Church.  I 
had  not  intended  to  tell  you  of  those  miserable,  dark  days  of 
discouragement  and  persecution,  but  since  others  are  taking 
pains  to  falsify  and  cast  aspersion  on  proper  motives,  I  shall 
from  time  to  time  attempt  to  tell  you  why  I  took  the  steps 
that  I  did. 

It  was  about  the  year  1877  that  I  last  attended  the  general 
conference  of  the  Alormon  Church  in  Salt  Lake  City.  Brig- 
ham  Young,  with  liis  twelve  apostles,  occupied  the  platform 
in  the  tabernacle.  Apostle  Orson  Hyde,  being  the  first 
speaker,  delivered  an  address  on  the  resurrection  of  the  body 
and  the  state  of  life  hereafter,  whereupon  Brigham  Young 
arose  and  stated  that  while  he  knew  nothing  in  regard  to 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  the  life  hereafter,  yet  he 
knew  as  much  about  it  as  Brother  Hyde. 

I  had  been  in  the  Mormon  Church  about  twenty  years 
and  was  beginning  to  feel  skeptical  in  regard  to  Brigham 
Young's  doctrine,  but  the  thought  had  not  entered  my  mind 
that  Joseph  Smith  could  have  been  a  false  prophet.  I  felt 
keenly  disappointed,  and  about  a  year  after  my  visit  to  Salt 
Lake  I  became  convinced  of  Brigham  Young's  falsity,  and 
feeling  sorry  for  my  townsmen  in  this  delusion,  I  decided  to 
take  a  stand  openly.  Being  a  frequent  speaker,  I  took  the 
platform  one  Sunday  and  told  the  people  that  the  priesthood 
could  not  bring  happiness,  but  the  love  which  we  have  tor 
our  fellow-men.  With  outstretched  hand  I  cried:  "Do  you 
not  know  that  when  you  do  good  you  will  feel  happy,  but  if 
you  harm  anyone  you  will  feel  sorrow?  That  the  priest- 
hood has  power  only  as  granted  by  the  people?  That  the 
law  of  tithing  is  but  the  invention  of  man?  That  the  gospel 
is  to  love  and  not  hate  your  brother?     Do  you  hear?     Do 

—  54  — 


you  not  know  that  the  Mormon  Church  has  been  led  astray 
by  priestcraft  and  that  the  church  to-day  is  no  more  than 
any  other  church  unless  we  live  the  better  life?  We  shall 
each  be  judged  by  our  own  acts.  I  will  prove  to  you  that 
we  have  Alormonism  in  our  own  hands,  and  that  if  we  live  a 
Christian  life,  then  are  we  the  Church  of  God,  independent 
of  the  priesthood." 

I  had  broken  the  ice  and  was  a  happier  man.  But  such 
sufferings  as  were  to  follow !  1  was  pronounced  an  apos- 
tate, a  sinner,  an  ungodly  wretch.  My  outbreak  was  the  talk 
of  the  town.  I  was  hated  and  accused  of  vile  things,  but 
I  felt  that  I  was  right  and  a  few  of  my  townsmen  rallied 
to  my  support,  protecting  me  from  cruel  vengeance  of  the 
Mormon  authorities.  I  became  a  fanatic,  and  in  my  zeal 
fled  to  the  mountains,  and  for  three  days  preached  to  the 
trees  and  prayed  through  the  night.  When  hunger,  thirsi 
and  fatigue  had  weakened  my  mind  and  body  I  began  to 
dream  and  see  visions.  Yes,  with  wide-open  eyes  it  seemed 
that  I  looked  upon  two  heavenly  messengers  and  voices  from 
above  were  saying,  "Preach  repentance  to  these  people." 
Later  the  angel  Gabriel  seemed  to  come,  assuring  me  that 
he  would  be  my  Guardian  Angel.  The  third  night  found 
me  so  famished  that  I  intuitively  turned  toward  home.  Com- 
ing to  a  field,  the  first  edibles  I  could  find  were  some  raw 
potatoes,  after  which  I  had  eaten  I  was  afraid  that  I  had 
sinned  because  I  had  vowed  to  fast  three  days. 

However,  it  was  almost  twelve  o'clock.  In  the  morn- 
ing, having  slept,  I  felt  better  and  was  prepared  for  any 
questions  that  my  friends  might  ask,  or  for  abuse  from  my 
enemies ;  had  I  not  been  visited  by  heavenly  beings  who  had 
commanded  me  to  preach  repentance  with  the  assurance  that 
the  angels  would  protect  me?  A  few  of  the  best  citizens 
came  to  my  support  and  pledged  themselves  to  stand  by  me, 
saying  that  my  teaching  was  from  God.  They  felt  that 
Brigham  had  gone  astray,  and  in   fact  he  had  said  more 

—  55  — 


than  once  that  he  was  not  a  prophet,  and  that  if  tlie  people 
could  see  as  he  saw  they  would  all  leave  the  church.  Our 
little  band  was  dropped  from  the  church  and  a  series  of 
ridicule  gave  way  to  abuse  and  persecution.  We  were  hated 
and  pronounced  a  set  of  insane  people.  On  myself  and 
family  came  the  most  bitter  hate  and  vituperation.  How- 
ever, we  felt  it  incumbent  upon  ourselves  to  tell  the  people 
that  Brigham  Young  had  led  the  church  astray.  We 
preached  that  man  should  have  but  one  wife,  that  the  law 
of  tithing  was  from  man,  that  God  did  not  dwell  in  houses 
built  by  hands,  but  in  the  hearts  of  his  children.  From  this 
time  forth  we  would  be  free  from  the  tyranny  of  Mormon- 
ism.  We  exhorted  men  to  love  each  other  and  to  follow 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  only.  So  zealous  did  I  become 
in  my  endeavors  that  a  marshal  marched  me  out  of  an 
assembly  and  a  polygamist  followed  me  out  of  town,  declar- 
ing that  I  had  disturbed  his  family  in  that  I  was  preaching 
against  polygamy.  By  this  time,  about  1885,  those  who  had 
promised  to  stand  by  me  were  losing  their  zeal ;  some  went 
back  to  the  Mormon  Church,  others  became  infidels,  while  a 
few  cast  their  lot  with  the  Presbyterians  who  were  begin- 
ning to  open  mission  schools  in  Utah. 

As  for  myself,  my  property  was  gone,  my  fervor  for  tell- 
ing the  story  of  my  visions  was  ebbing  away  and  I  was  be- 
ginning to  doubt  the  existence  of  anything  supernatural  in 
my  experience.  I  was  doubting  myself.  Of  the  women 
whom  I  had  taken  for  my  wives,  one  was  in  sympathy  with 
me,  and  the  other,  although  still  a  Mormon  in  faith,  wished 
to  remain  my  lawful  wife. 

With  the  help  of  my  wives  and  small  children  we  set  our 
faces  toward  the  problem  of  securing  lost  property  and  gain- 
ing a  livelihood.  After  seven  years  of  hard  labor  my  daugh- 
ters working  in  the  fields,  we  began  to  reach  an  independent 
state.  My  children  have  now  gone  away  to  their  various 
callings,  one  especially  to  tell  of  the  blighting  effects  of  Mor- 
monism.     Old  age  is  creeping  on  and  we  are  almost  alone. 

-56- 


And  I  shall  say  that  while  I  write  my  eyes  feel  wet,  or  did 
a  drop  of  water  fall  on  my  paper?  Not  from  sorrow,  but 
satisfaction  of  attempted  duties,  perhaps  not  performed, 
with  a  hope  for  the  future  and  wonderings  of  the  deep,  deep 
mysteries  of  life. 

Your  Father. 


-57 -• 


What  I  Saw  in  the  Endowment  House. 

Utah,  October,  1907. 

My  dear  Boy  : 

Yes.  I  have  been  in  the  Endowment  House  more  than 
once.  In  1865  my  first  wife  and  I,  with  others  of  the  faith- 
ful, went  through,  ^^'e  stepped  into  a  little  room  where  the 
great  man,  McAllister,  who  was  noted  for  his  abruptness 
toward  the  Saints  when  taking  their  names,  greeted  us  with 
a  growl  and  a  frown.  He  said  tliat  "you  might  as  well  speak 
to  an  ass  a?  to  try  to  tell  a  foreigner  am-thing."  We  were 
next  led  into  another  room,  undressed  and  smeared  with 
grease.  We  swore  by  God  and  all  the  powers  to  be  faithful 
and  to  do  all  in  our  power  to  destroy  the  enemies  of  the 
Mormon  Church.  Xext  we  put  on  our  ghost-like  clothes  and 
burial  suit  and  proceeded  to  a  larger  room,  where  Heber 
Kimball  vras  stationed  to  crack  jokes  with  the  half-naked 
congregation.  When  we  proceeded  into  the  next  room  the 
Devil  came  also,  but  we  were  immune  from  his  powers. 
Although  he  had  caused  Adam  and  Eve  to  fall,  he  could 
not  approach  us,  because  we  had  received  new  names,  and 
we  had  lost  our  identities.  ]\Iy  new  name  was  a  secret  until 
I  heard  some  one  yell  into  the  ear  of  a  deaf  brother,  "Your 
new  name  is  Abraham."  I  gave  a  sudden  start,  for  I  thought 
that  name  was  for  me  alone. 

Forty  years  have  rolled  by,  and  every  man  with  whom  I 
have  had  conversation  has  told  me  that  his  name  was  Abra- 
ham. We  went  through  various  sundry  perfonnances  and 
toward  the  close  of  the  day  my  wife  and  I  were  placed  on 
each  side  of  a  narrow  table,  myself  kneeling  on  a  low  stool. 
Brigham  Young,  who  was  lounging  on  a  sofa  with  several 
apostles  and  one  of  them  sitting  on  a  chair,  carelessly  leaning 
back,  with  his  feet  on  the  table,  married  us  for  time  and 
eternity.  My  wife  had  been  baptized  for  several  dead  rela- 
tives and  they  were  =ea!ed  to  me  f^^  time  and  eternity,  which 

-^58- 


means  that  they  will  be  my  wives  m  heaven.  I  had  aso  beeo 
baptized  for  some  of  my  dead  relatives. 

I  had  often  been  called  in  to  counsel  Tsi:h  the  elders  of  die 
church  and  had  proved  to  be  a  faithful  member  of  the 
saints.  My  wife  could  stand  in  prayer-meeting  and  declare 
that  polygamy  was  a  revelation  from  G>i  And,  in  fact, 
"whosoever  did  not  enter  into  polygamy  should  be  damned/' 

There  .vas  in  our  to'.vn  a  young  girl,  a  Mormon  convert, 
who  had  just  come  from  Denmark.  She  was  poor,  dressed 
plainly,  but  was  verj-  neat.  She  was  invited  to  our  house  a 
nimiber  of  times  and  my  wife  insisted  that  she  should  stay, 
be  one  with  us,  and  finally  become  my  second  wife.  I  For 
I  must  have  at  least  another  wife  in  order  to  fulfill  all 
righteousness  > .  But  my  first  wife  should  be  the  queen  and 
should  rule  her  family  for  time  and  all  eternity.    The  double 

sorrow  of  married  life  began  when  I  admitted  to  her  that 
we  had  been  out  walking  together  one  day.     I  hesitate  to 

write  y:--i  of  the  unpleasant  affair  of  the  morning  when  we 
began  our  journey  to  Salt  Lake  Cit>'  to  go  before  the  priest- 
hood and  receive  that  pretended  benediction  which  has  since 
kept  aU  three  of  us  burning  in  a  ccmtinuous  hell.  Upon  omr 
departure  the  demon  of  jealousy  enterel  :  t:_r:  of  my 
first  wife  and  she  has  struggled  with  it  :r :":.  :  \    to  this. 

A  neighbor  told  me  this  stor}-  when  I  ci  v. 

"AMien  you  were  only  a  few  rods  from  the  house  and  the 
wagon  was  still  in  sight,  she  ran  out.  crying:  'How  shall  I 
stand  it?  They  have  gone.  If  he  had  only  known  what  I 
have  suffered  all  this  time  he  would  not  have  done  it.  But 
now  it  is  too  late,  ^^llat  shall  I  do  ?  She  acted  like  a  crazy 
person  and  could  not  be  comforted."  When  we  came  back 
from  Salt  Lake  Cir>-  with  the  girl  as  my  wife  all  should  have 
been  well.  !My  first  wife  appeared  pleased  enough,  but  there 
was  something  wrong.  My  second  wife  in  innocent  girlhoo-J 
was  wondering  what  wrong  she  had  done.  She  has  not 
gotten  over  it  to  this  day.  but  is  wondering  how  she  could 

—  59  — 


have  been  so  ignorant. 

You  have  often  asked  how  I  came  to  leave  the  :\Iormon 
Church.  In  1877  I  was  beginning  to  doubt  the  truth  of 
Mormonism,  and  especially  Brighani  Young ;  for  he  himself 
had  said  that  he  was  no  prophet,  although  he  had  been 
"profitable"  to  the  Mormon  people.  I  believed  at  that  time, 
however,  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  had  been  established  b'/ 
Joseph  Smith.  I  felt  that  I  must  have  an  angel  come  from 
heaven  and  tell  me  all  about  it,  so  that  I  might  know  the 
truth,  but  here  my  real  trouble  began.  I  thought  of  my  dead 
parents  and  brothers  and  prayed  that  they  might  show^  me 
the  way.  Should  I  come  out  and  take  the  stand  against  the 
church?    But  I  had  two  families.    What  if  I  should  fail? 

Thus  it  is  to  be  religiously  intoxicated,  a  malady  coming 
no  doubt  to  the  more  ignorant  people.  It  may  be  construe;! 
as  a  strong  imagination;  but  could  it  not  be  the  same  a^ 
when  a  drunken  man  sees  snakes  in  his  boots  ?  I  suffered 
with  the  former.  I  felt  sure  that  I  had  been  visited  by  my 
dead  mother,  and  also  by  an  angel  with  whom  the  Devil 
himself  was  hobnobbing.  One  night  I  heard  a  ringing  voice 
say:  "Speak  repentance  to  these  people.''  I  saw  two  per- 
sonages in  the  sky  looking  down  at  me.  It  was  then  that  I 
broke  away,  for  I  had  been  called  by  a  voice  from  heaven. 
But  the  mystery  to  me  to-day  is  to  wonder  how  a  delusion 
could  have  such  a  power  over  people. 

I  could  convince  people,  and  every  word  I  spoke  went 
deep  into  their  hearts  for  a  time.  I  soon  discovered  that 
the  leaders  of  the  church  cared  very  little  for  God  and  the 
church;  only  the  priesthood.  After  undergoing  much  per- 
secution in  the  town  where  I  lived,  and  having  received  some 
encouragement  I  took  my  Bible  and  the  Book  of  Mormon 
one  Sunday  morning  and  went  to  a  neighboring  town  to  tell 
my  story.  I  called  on  the  Bishop ;  he  was  an  infidel.  And 
when  I  told  him  of  Brigham  Young's  mistakes  he  kindly 
slapped  me  on  the  shoulder  and  said :    "Ha,  ha !    I  thought 

—  60  — 


you  knew  better."  That  afternoon  I  preached  on  the  streets, 
for  I  could  not  get  a  house.  One  of  the  apostles  had  pre- 
ceded and  warned  them  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  me.  In 
the  next  town  I  met  the  Bishop  and  his  counsellors  in  his 
office.  He  told  me  in  an  insulting  way  that  he  was  not  smart 
enough  to  understand  my  point ;  that  he  had  been  told  be- 
fore to  look  out  for  me,  and  that  I  was  a  dangerous  person. 
However,  I  stayed  in  the  town,  preached  on  the  street,  and 
received  encouragement.  The  next  town  I  entered  I  found 
the  people  gathered  on  the  street  waiting  for  me.  They 
appeared  to  be  an  ignorant  and  superstitious  lot.  After 
preaching  to  them,  they  refused  me  admittance  to  any  of 
their  homes.  That  night  at  eleven  o'clock  I  left  for  the  next 
town,  and  it  was  next  morning  before  I  could  find  food  or 
friends. 

One  Sunday  I  entered  a  larger  town  than  usual  and  met 
a  liberal  class  of  people ;  but  they  refused  me  the  use  of  their 
church  or  school-house.  I  stationed  myself  near  the  meeting- 
house door  and  when  the  crowds  had  collected  about  me 
I  held  up  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  declared  that,  according 
to  this,  their  own  book,  the  church  had  wandered  away  from 
God.  One  man  spoke  up  and  said :  "Come,  let's  get  out  of 
here.  That  man  is  crazy."  Another  man  stepped  forward 
from  the  crowd,  shook  hands  with  me,  and  to  my  great  con- 
sternation I  recognized  in  him  the  man  who  had  baptized 
me  in  my  native  home  when  I  became  a  Mormon  convert. 
He  informed  me  that  he  had  left  the  church  years  ago  when 
he  had  discovered  that  Joseph  Smith  and  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon were  false.  This  bit  of  truth  has  been  worth  to  me 
much  more  than  all  the  visions  and  dreams  that  I  have  ever 
had. 

There  is  a  time  for  all  things.  I  did  not  then  realize  that 
my  life  had  been  in  jeopardy.  A  Bishop  had  told  his  people 
in  church  that  nothing  was  too  bad  for  a  man  who  would 
iise  his  influence  to  preach  against  the   Gospel  of  Jesus 

— 6i  — 


Christ,  and  that  he  would  destroy  my  family.  Another 
polygamist  Bishop  told  his  folks  not  to  use  their  right  hand 
in  greeting  me,  but  to  shake  hands  with  the  left.  He  said 
I  had  evil  influence  over  people,  and  I  couldn't  blame  him,, 
for  two  of  his  wives  had  already  left  him  because  of  my^ 
preaching. 

Your  Father. 


62- 


Dark  Da^s  in  Utah, 

Utah,  November,  1907. 

My  dear  Boy  : 

During  these  days  that  I  was  tramping  around  I  had  been 
seeking  a  God  that  did  not  exist ;  a  God  that  would  direct  me 
in  every-day  life — such  as  what  to  wear,  eat  and  drink. 
Brigham  Young  had  said:  "Yes,  the  priesthood  of  God  shall 
yet  direct  how  we  shall  shape  our  clothes ;  yes,  even  tell  us 
how  to  build  a  pig-pen/'  It  was  with  such  anxiety  to  know 
what  the  Lord  wanted  me  to  do  that  I  was  led  away  by 
superstitious  dreams  and  visions.  One  evenmg,  after  having 
tramped  around  all  day  and  the  night  before,  I  went  away 
from  speaking  to  a  hostile  crowd  and  went  to  sleep  on  a 
shed.  While  sleeping  I  heard  a  voice  say :  "It  is  now  as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  old.  In  long  hair  there  is  strength."  I 
looked  around,  but  saw  no  one.  So  I  felt  sure  I  had  had  a 
vision.  Indeed  the  Saints  in  the  olden  days  did  not  cut  their 
hair;  one  can  see  it  in  their  pictures.  Samson  wore  long 
hair.  This  was  a  revelation.  So  I  did  not  have  my  hair  cut 
for  a  long  time.    As  my  hair  grew  I  felt  stronger  in  the  faith. 

Coming  into  town  one  day,  I  met  the  Bishop  and  asked 
permission  to  use  the  meeting-house.  On  going  to  other 
families  I  learned  that  they  had  all  been  warned  of  my  com- 
ing and  consequently  presented  a  hostile  front.  I  crawled  on 
top  of  a  barn  with  my  long  hair  and  began  to  preach  repent- 
ance and  the  whole  town  came  out  to  see  what  that  "crazy" 
man  was  doing — just  what  I  wanted  them  to  do. 

Once  I  came  into  a  town  and  asked  the  Bishop  for  the 
meeting-house.  He  said  I  could  have  it  if  after  I  had  spoken 
he  could  appoint  some  one  to  answer  me.  The  elder  ap- 
pointed to  do  that  was  a  polygamist,  a  fortune-teller,  and, 
what  is  more,  a  thorough  infidel.  I  knew  him  very  well. 
He  said  that  my  doctrine  was  all  right,  but  I  was  about  forty 
years  too  late,  as  Joseph  Smith  had  promulgated  that  long 
ago.     He  asked  me,  "When  did  you  lie?    I  heard  you  say 

-63- 


once  that  the  Mormon  Church  was  the  true  church  of  God, 
and  now  you  say  it  is  not?"  He  turned  to  the  congregation 
and  said,  "Which  statement  shall  we  believe?"  He  con- 
tinued, "No,  let  us  choose  the  priesthood  of  God  and  let  this 
intruder  go  where  he  belongs.  Let  us  have  our  wives  and 
children  safe."  The  people  were  much  disturbed  and  ex- 
cited. It  was  whispered  that  had  this  happened  back  in  the 
fifties  some  one  would  have  been  appointed  to  put  me  out 
of  the  way.  One  man  came  to  me  in  the  night  and  warned 
me  to  flee.  I  was  told  afterward  that  certain  individuals 
were  disappointed  that  night  when  they  came  seeking  me 
where  I  had  slept. 

That  same  evening  I  came  to  a  family  of  friends  who 
were  interested  in  my  cause,  and  the  woman  of  the  home 
said  that  I  could  not  expect  to  succeed  if  I  went  around 
the  country  in  old  clothes  and  long  hair.  I  had  given  my 
property  to  the  needy.  My  hair  had  been  growing  and  I 
must  have  looked  peculiar.  She  said,  "You  must  work  on 
and  be  successful.  Think  of  the  freedom  of  mind  that  we 
have  had  since  you  began  to  work  for  us.  We  are  not  afraid 
now  to  oppose  polygamy,  because  we  have  learned  that 
many  are  against  it.  All  we  need  is  a  leader  to  take  the 
first  step.  But  you  must  not  appear  odd  in  this  work.  You 
must  command  respect  and  dignity."  I  was  on  my  way 
home,  where  I  had  a  large  following,  and  I  finally  agreed  to 
let  her  cut  off  my  long  hair.  When  it  was  done  I  was 
sorry.  I  had  gone  away  with  long  hair  and  had  pretended 
that  therein  lay  my  strength  and  influence.  What  would  my 
fellow  followers  think  about  it  ?  A  strange  feeling  of  weak- 
ness began  to  creep  over  me  and  I  felt  my  strength  giving 
way.  My  career  had  been  remarkable  and  my  followers 
could  be  numbered  in  almost  every  town.  Was  it  all  imagi- 
nation or  was  it  real? 

The  hrst  man  I  met  when  I  came  into  town  was  a  friend, 
but  he  had  a  mind  of  his  own.  Said  me,  "I  have  been  waiting 

-64- 


to  see  you,  but  now  you  have  had  your  hair  cut."  One  of 
my  wives  just  looked  at  me  and  the  other  said,  "I  thought 
you  couldn't  stand  that  long  hair."  Another  friend  cried 
after  me,  "You  have  had  your  hair  cut;  it  is  all  over  town 
that  the  new  prophet  has  had  his  hair  cut  and  has  given 
up  his  mission."  The  first  Sunday  I  met  with  my  followers. 
Those  who  had  stood  by  me  in  adversity  and  had  been  my 
staunch  friends  through  all  my  career  said,  "We  put  our 
faith  in  you  and  depended  on  you,  but  now  you  have  had 
your  hair  cut.  What  next  ?"  Another  young  man  said  that 
the  best  thing  that  we  could  do,  if  we  could  do  it  at  all,  was 
to  establish  a  new  sect,  and  there  were  already  enough  of 
those. 

It  seemed  as  though  all  my  friends  were  deserting  me  be- 
cause of  my  hair  having  been  cut.  But  the  real  reason  was 
that  most  of  my  property  had  been  given  away  to  the  needy, 
and  there  was  no  material  benefit  to  be  reaped.  My  enemies 
rejoiced  and  I  was  almost  heart-broken.  These  few  years 
of  mental  and  physical  struggle  had  been  sapping  my  vitality, 
and  thus  I  came  back  to  my  home  and  for  the  sake  of  my 
children  I  began  life  anew.  But  it  seemed  almost  impossible 
to  catch  up  the  broken  thread  and  many  a  time  a  silent  pang 
came  to  my  heart  and  I  grieved  that  I  had  been  bom.  Many 
a  night  have  I  wandered  around  the  little  pond  as  it  beck- 
oned to  me,  for  I  had  not  a  friend  on  earth.  I  had  been 
deceived  and  I  was  called  a  deceiver.  I  wandered  along  the 
creek  and  asked  myself  if  the  stream  should  be  my  silent 
resting-place  and  death  be  my  friend.  But  I  suddenly 
awoke ;  my  two  noble  wives  had  not  forsaken  me — though 
opportunities  had  been  presented,  for  polygamy  was  not 
dead.  Many  suitors  had  offered  their  hand  and  I  had  seen 
them  prowling  about  at  night.  Should  I  leave  these 
two  true  women  and  nine  helpless  children  ?  No,  not  until 
I  had  to. 

Your  Father. 
-65-- 


■     '  A  Paradox, 

Utah,  January,   1908. 
My  dear  Boy  : 

Here  is  a  paradox.  The  Mormons  claim  that  the  denom- 
inations doing  religious  work  in  Utah  are  stirring  up  un- 
necessary strife  and  discord,  and  that  their  presence  is  and 
has  always  been  a  detriment  to  the  good  and  welfare  of  the 
state. 

Then,  strangely,  on  the  other  hand,  they  claim  that  if 
Mormonism  was  left  alone  and  persecution  would  cease, 
there  would  be  no  Mormon  question.  What  does  this  mean? 
The  first  statement  is  either  false  and  they  will  have  to 
acknowledge  that  the  denominations  are  a  benefit  to  Utah 
and  her  people,  or  that  Mormonism  is  a  bad  thing  and  a 
benefit  would  accrue  to  the  state  should  it  cease  to  exist. 

The  fact  of  the  case  is  that  the  work  of  the  denomina- 
tions has  been  of  great  service  to  the  Mormon  people.  In 
the  first  place,  the  work  of  the  Mission  Schools  has  forced 
the  Mormons  to  adopt  a  system  of  education,  and  has  also 
compelled  the  priesthood  to  drop  from  their  present-day 
teachings  some  of  the  most  absurd  and  degrading  doctrines. 

Furthermore,  when  I  was  an  ardent  worker  in  the  Mor- 
mon Church  we  were  taught  by  the  priesthood  that  no  other 
church  would  ever  be  able  to  come  into  Utah;  that  God 
would  not  permit  His  most  holy  people  to  be  contaminated 
by  the  influences  of  the  wicked  and  filthy  sects  known  as 
Giristians,  and  that  He  had  established  His  church  in  Utah 
and  all  other  sects  would  sooner  or  later  (no  doubt  later) 
be  subservient  to  the  Mormon  priesthood. 

The  doctrine  was  promulgated  to  us  that  we  should  have 
all  the  wives  we  wanted;  that  each  man  should  have  a 
church,  a  harem,  or  what  not,  all  of  his  own,  a  sort  of  god, 
and  all  of  these  minor  churches  should  find  its  general  head 
in  the  Mormon  priesthood. 

—  66  — 


But  strange — I  have  it  from  good  authority — that  the 
Book  of  Mormon  was  never  printed  with  the  intention  of 
founding  a  church,  but  was  gotten  up  to  sell.  The  book 
was  a  curious  concoction  and  the  iriost  significant  fact  of  it 
to-'day  is  that  it  expressly  forbids  polygamy.  No  man  can 
be  a  believer  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  be  a  polygamist. 
Polygamy  was  brought  into  the  church  through  natural  cir- 
cumstances in  the  life  of  such  a  man  as  Joseph  Smith  proved 
himself  to  be. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  career  of  Joseph  Smith  and  until 
the  Mormons  had  been  driven  out  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Mis- 
souri, and  settled  in  Nauvoo,  polygamy  had  never  come  into 
the  church.     Joseph  Smith  was  a  good  preacher,  kind  to 
his  friends,  and  of  marked  personality.     He  preached  Love 
and  God  to  his  people.     It  was  natural  that  his  young  con- 
verts should  go  to  him  with  all  confidence.     They  felt  that 
they  could  come  to  him  with  many  troubles  and  discourage- 
ments.    Every  minister  of  the  Gospel  becomes  an  adviser 
to  men,  women,  and  also  some  girls.     Many  affidavits  have 
been  advanced  to  show  beyond  any  question  that  Joseph 
Smith  not  only  abused  the  confidence  of  trusting  girls,  but 
used  disgraceful  methods  and  trickery  to  force  them  under 
his  power.     He  was  never  brought  into  court  for  any  of 
these  crimes,  so  it  is  impossible  to  legally  prove  that  he  was 
a  criminal  in  that  sense.    At  any  rate,  as  it  was  expressed  at 
that  time,  "His  wife,  Emma,  would  not  stand  for  it."    And 
so  it  became  necessary  for  an  angel  to  come  to  Joseph  Smith 
in  the  night,  bearing  in  his  right  hand  a  two-edged  sword, 
with  which  he  threatened  to  cut  Joseph  in  two  if  he  did  not 
marry  all  of  these  young  girls  who  had  no  husbands;  and 
so  polygamy  was  introduced  into  the  church. 

The  Mormon  Church  has  not  increased  because  of  the 
doctrine  of  polygamy.  Lust  has  not  been  the  means  o' 
bringing  the  great  mass  of  people  into  the  church.  Although 
most  of  the  converts  have  been  drawn  from  the  poore/ 
classes,  yet  they  are  of  such  intelligence  and  social  standing 


that  they  naturally  abhor  such  vileness  as  polygamy.     The 
fact  is  that  many  people  who  are  now  Mormons  were  as- 
sured upon  conversion  that  "polygamy  is  not  and  never 
has  been  a  doctrine  of  the  church,  and  it  is  not  practiced 
by  Brigham  Young  or  others  in  Utah."    In  Denmark  when 
it  was  rumored  tliat  Brigham  Young  had  twelve  wives  and 
we  asked  the  elders  if  it  was  true,  they  said  that  he  did  not. 
In  after  years  I  met  this  same  man  in  Utah  who  had  assured 
me  in  Denmark  that  Brigham  Young  did  not  have  twelve 
wives  and  asked  him  why  he  told  me  a  falsehood.     He 
answered  that  he  did  not  falsify,  because  at  that  time  Brig- 
ham did  not  have  twelve  wives,  but  about  thirty.    If  polyg- 
amy was  promulgated  openly  among  prospective  Mormon 
converts  there  would  be  few  accessions  to  the  church.    But 
once  having  joined  the   church  and  having  accepted  the 
priesthood  as  infallible  they  are  compelled,  for  the  sake  of 
a  heavenly  home  and  a  glory  hereafter,  to  accept  and  practice 
polygamy.     When  a  man  goes  into  polygamy  he  becomes 
distinctly   Mormon.     He  is,  under  the  circumstances,   set 

against  law  and  against  his  fellow-citizens  who  stand  for  law 
and  order  . 

He  becomes  one  of  the  "despised  Mormons"  against 
whom,  according  to  priesthood  teaching,  all  the  wicked 
world  has  combined  to  destroy.  He  is  identified  with  crime 
and  he  necessarily  stays  with  his  fellows.  Few  men  have 
the  courage  in  the  face  of  these  circumstances  to  come  out 
and  publicly  acknowledge  that  he  has  been  duped. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  because  these  men  have  be- 
come the  victims  of  this  system  that  they  are  bad  at  heart. 
One  morning  I  saw  a  Bishop  pull  ofif  his  coat  and  give  it  to 
a  boy  who  was  going  to  the  hills  for  a  load  of  wood.  At 
another  time  I  saw  a  Bishop  pull  a  poor  woman's  tooth 
without  price  because  she  asked  him;  and  when  she  cried 
becausse  it  hurt  he  took  a  dollar  out  of  his  pocket  and  gave 
It  to  her.  I  knew  a  "brother"  who  once  took  an  older 
woman  as  his  plural  wife  so  that  he  would  feel  it  incumbent 

—  68  — 


upon  himself  to  support  h^r.  But  such  deeds  as  these  are  the 
great  exception.  At  heart  the  great  mass  of  the  Mormon 
people  are  of  that  kind-hearted  class  whose  sympathies  can 
be  reached  by  smooth-flowing  words.  They  form  the  bul- 
wark of  the  church,  pay  the  tithing,  and  any  good  that  is  in 
the  church  is  there  because  it  is  a  part  of  the  make-up  of 
these  poorer  people  who  have  become  the  victims  of  such  de- 
signing leaders  as  Smith,  Roberts  and  Smoot.  These  hard- 
working people,  earnest  in  heart,  pay  the  lawyers  who  go  to 
Washington  to  pave  the  way  for  apostles  and  priests  who 
are  sent  to  have  laws  enacted  which  will  give  them  still 
greater  power  over  their  victims.  They  pay  Smoot's  attor- 
neys, support  Joseph  F.  Smith  and  five  women  to  whom  he 
is  not  married,  in  all  their  riotous  and  sumptuous  travels 
and  migrations. 

It  is  the  same  spirit  that  actuates  the  simple-hearted  and 
simple-minded  Mormon  missionary  to  go  out  without  script 
or  purse  and  preach  the  gospel  as  he  has  been  instructed  by 
his  "file  leader." 

These  missionaries  go  and  return,  work  hard,  very  hard, 
for  the  rest  of  their  days,  to  support  their  families  and  pay 
their  tithing  and  die  happily  in  ignorance.  The  great  power 
of  Mormonism  is  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the  hard-work- 
ing, honest  men,  who  are  for  the  most  part  European  work- 
ingmen,  tillers  of  the  soil,  as  well  as  the  ''blue  blood"  from 
the  South.  The  Southern  States  are  becoming  their  richest 
field. 

The  trusting  simplicity  of  these  converts  is  remarkable. 
They  are  taught  and  actually  believe  that  when  they  have 
hands  laid  upon  them  for  the  "gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  that 
they  do  and  have  power  to  heal  the  sick.  Every  Sunday  here 
at  home  the  elders,  boys  whom  I  have  known  from  child- 
hood, bless  bottles  of  oil,  after  which  performance  it  con- 
tains divine  healing  properties,  and  the  patient  to  whom  it 
is  administered  will  become  whole.  Almost  every  day  the 
elders  are  called  to  the  sick-bed  to  lay  hands  on  the  stricken, 

-69- 


and  if  the  patient  recovers  it  was  through  the  power  of  the 
priesthood.  If  he  does  not,  it  is  because  of  his  lack  ol 
faith. 

It  is  now  about  tliirty  years  since  I  stood  in  Utah  all 
alone,  having  left  the  church  under  striking  circumstances. 
For  twenty-nine  years  I  had  been  a  firm  believer  and  an 
ardent  advocate  of  the  faidi.  How  could  I  under  the  cir- 
cumstances take  up  with  any  other  sect?  I  began  to  live 
and  act  in  the  light  of  my  knowledge  and  convictions  and 
then  it  was  in  my  loneliness  that  I  found  a  clear  conscience. 

It  was  freedom.  How  sweet  and  how  pleasant  it  was  to 
be  free  from  the  fear  of  the  priesthood;  to  be  no  longer 
under  the  dominance  of  the  false  prophet,  of  those  things 
which  every  Mormon  recognizes  in  his  heart  of  hearts  is 
wrong  and  tyrannical,  but  from  which  he  cannot  escape  and 
from  which  he  must  pretend  that  he  does  not  care  to  escape. 

The  rank  and  file  of  the  Alormon  Church  are  waiting 
for  some  one  of  their  number  to  rise  up,  who  has  a  heart 
big  enough  and  intellect  enough  to  openly  denounce  Joseph 
F.  Smith,  Smoot,  Brigham  H.  Roberts  and  others  who  are 
living  in  luxury  from  the  tithes  of  those  oppressed  people. 
From  time  to  time  petty  attempts  have  been  made  to  throw 
off  the  severest  form  of  this  bondage,  but  each  insurgent 
has  been  immediately  and  severely  dealt  with.  When  Moses 
Thatcher  opposed  the  violation  of  their  covenants  with  the 
government,  he  was  immediately  deprived  of  his  place  as 
apostle,  deacon  and  elder.  He  was  ruined  in  business;  he 
took  to  his  sick-bed,  and  while  he  lay  apparently  dying  a 
committee  of  the  priesthood  waited  on  him  and  compelled 
him  to  sign  a  document  to  the  effect  that  all  these  calamities 
had  come  upon  him  because  he  had  opposed  the  Lord's 
anointed. 

Your  Father. 


-70- 


'What  Fools  We  Mortals  Be." 

]\Iv  DEAR  Boy: 

It  is  not  the  religious  man  that  is  honored  in  the  Mormon 
Church,  but  the  keen  hypocrite.  The  smartest  and  the 
shrewdest  are  made  Bishops.  Often  when  a  man  loses  the 
faith  he  remains  in  tlie  church  for  business  reasons.  I  knew 
of  a  young  man  coming  home  from  a  mission  who  had  lost 
his  faith,  but  he  did  not  speak  against  the  church  and  its 
elders.  After  he  had  caroused  with  the  other  boys  and  had 
been  drunk  a  few  times  he  was  appointed  a  Bishop.  When 
I  think  of  Brigham  saying,  "li  you  could  only  see  as  I  can 
see  you  would  apostisize,''  it  could  only  mean  that  we  were 
only  a  set  of  fools.  When  Apostle  Kimball  said  that  he 
believed  that  the  Bible  was  inspired  just  like  any  other  good 
book  was  inspired,  it  was  the  same  as  to  say  that  it  was  not 
inspired.  I  rememher  at  one  time  when  one  of  the  apostles 
had  read  a  passage  from  the  Bible  he  laid  it  down  and  began 
to  preach  about  a  saw-mill  which  he  wished  the  bretheren  to 
build  up  close  to  the  timber  line.  And  this  was  all  meant 
to  save  souls  for  God's  Kingdom. 

The  Book  of  Mormon,  once  supposed  to  be  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Mormon  Church,  is  now  considered  dangerous 
for  faithful  Mormons  to  read.  I  know  that  from  experience. 
I  read  it  over  and  over  again  until  the  church  could  not  hold 
me.  A  Bishop  told  a  brother  that  if  he  did  not  stop  reading 
the  book  he  would  become  an  apostate.  This  same  brother 
was  afterwards  brought  to  trial  for  heresy  and  when  he  at- 
tempted to  read  his  answers  from  the  Book  of  Mormon  he 
was  compelled  to  put  it  away. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Mormon  Church  is  also  subject  to 
much  change.  It  is  a  repetition  of  the  attempt  on  the  part 
of  Joseph  Smith  to  retranslate  the  Bible.  He  began  by 
putting  more  into  it,  and  he  had  gone  over  but  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  book  when  his  friends  began  to  call  his  attention 
to  numerous  contradictions  that  were  creeping  in. 

—  71  — 


It  was  the  only  safe  course  for  them  to  pursue  when  they 
stated  that  the  Bible  and  other  books  were  nothing  in  com- 
parison to  the  "Living  Oracles."  Brigham  Young  was  a 
prophet  to  the  people  and  his  words  were  inspired,  coming 
directly  from  God  to  the  people.  The  Mormon  leaders  to- 
day would  gladly  erase  from  the  records  some  of  the  sayings 
of  Brigham  Young,  Apostle  Kimball,  Jedediah  Grant  and 
others.  They  would  gladly  blot  out  the  dark  and  bloody 
deeds  that  have  been  traced  to  the  responsibility  of  these 
inspired  men.  But  the  records  stand  and  history  cannot  be 
changed.  Now  they  are  trying  to  place  some  of  these  in- 
decent doctrines  in  the  background  of  their  propaganda. 

There  is  an  old  man,  one  of  my  neighbors,  who  sat  at  the 
feet  of  Brigham  to  learn.  He  learned  the  ''Adam  God" 
doctrine.  Now  the  young  men  of  the  church  are  trying  to 
eliminate  that  part  from  the  active  creed.  The  other  Sunday 
this  old  man  wished  to  speak.  He  arose  and  began  to  dis- 
course on  the  "Adam  God"  theme.  Those  in  authority 
sitting  behind  his  back  began  to  jerk  his  coat-tails.  He 
turned  and  said,  "What  fur  you  pull  my  coat-tail  ?"  When 
he  continued,  they  tried  to  pull  him  down  again.  This  time 
he  said,  "You  young  pups,  you  don't  know  anything. 
Brigham  Young  told  me  that  this  was  the  truth.  You  young 
fellers  are  goin'  ofif  after  the  Presbyterians.  I  will  tell  the 
truth."    He  was  not  allowed  to  speak,  however. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  originally  was  against  polygamy. 
That  was  before  Joseph  Smith's  awful  record  of  rank  im- 
morality had  come  to  light.  Now  some  of  the  young  people 
are  in  a  mood  to  eradicate  polygamy  from  the  doctrine  of 
the  church.    Verily  the  "Living  Oracles"  are  convenient. 

One  time  when  two  priests  came  to  tell  one  of  the  breth- 
ren, an  older  man,  the  way  he  should  walk,  he  said  he  did 
not  believe  that  Adam  was  our  God.  But  one  of  the  priests 
clapped  his  hands  in  the  old  man's  face  and  said  that  he 
would  have  to  believe  or  get  left.    It  was  taught  then  that  no 

—  72  — 


man  could  get  into  Heaven  unless  he  had  a  reconiniBidatiofl 
from  the  Bishop.  It  was  taught  also  that  Brigham  Young 
would  be  our  God  in  heaven  and  Joseph  would  be  the  same 
as  tke  Saviour  who  was  crucified.  But  Hyram  Smith,  his 
brother,  who  had  protested  against  polygamy,  would  be  in 
disgrace.  I  have  listened  to  this  hard  doctrine  and  pon- 
dered it  through  the  valleys  of  Utah.  I  have  hunted  and 
still  hunt  in  vain  for  words  of  salvation.  The  other  day  a 
Moniion  said  to  me,  "Come*  join  us  and  receive  the  trudi," 
I  could  only  answer,  "Oh,  manlknowest  thou  thyself  ?** 

Your  Father. 


73- 


Date  Due 

fftt. 

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"^H 

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PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

